MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There are years that the post-race test at the last round of the year - normally post Valencia, but Barcelona this year - is more of a formality than a source of excitement. The 2024 post-Barcelona test is not one of those occasions, however. A lot of riders are swapping teams and bikes, as are a lot of crew chiefs, so there is a lot to get used to.

The final test of the year is not usually a place to see new bikes or a lot of new parts introduced. Riders are tired after a long and emotionally draining season, the adrenaline of racing which has sustained them is gone, and nobody is as sharp as they should be and capable of providing the kind of precise and detailed feedback that the factories require.

In terms of bikes and parts, the focus will mostly be on general, big picture stuff. Some first impressions, and some acclimatization. The bikes at Barcelona may be very preliminary verions of what we see next year, but Sepang is where we will see the first real prototypes for the 2025 season take to the track.

With so many changes taking place, I have added a list of who is going where in 2025 at the bottom of this post. That includes riders, bikes, and crew chiefs. But first, what to expect from the various factories.

Ducati - an embarrassment of riches

With Marc Márquez moving up to the factory Ducati Lenovo team, where he will be paired with Marco Rigamonti, the crew chief Enea Bastianini is leaving behind, Gigi Dall'Igna has the best rider pairing on the MotoGP grid on his hands. The objective for the Barcelona test is to get Márquez integrated into the factory team, used to his new crew chief, and ready to start the real work at Sepang.

Marc Márquez will have his old bike - a GP23, and the first version of the GP25 at his disposal, while Pecco Bagnaia focuses on the GP25. It is, as Gigi Dall'Igna told Italian media on Monday, just an initial, 'embryonic' version of the bike to be raced next year in an early stage of development. The GP25 will not be as big of a jump over the GP24 as the GP24 was over the GP23, which should open the field up a little.

While Márquez works on adjusting to the factory Ducati environment, Pecco Bagnaia will start the first work on next year's bike. But Bagnaia will also want to ride and shake off the disappointment of losing the 2024 title to Jorge Martin. Even though he knew it was likely, hope dies last, and it takes a while to come to terms with. The best coping strategy is to focus on working to get the #1 plate back in 2025.

At the VR46 squad, only Franco Morbidelli will be riding, though no doubt Michele Pirro will be working on the GP25 based out of the VR46 garage. Fabio Di Giannantonio is still recovering from shoulder surgery performed last month. Morbidelli has to adapt to his new team, but brings his crew chief Massimo Branchini with him from Pramac.

At Gresini, Alex Márquez continues with the same team and crew chief and will be focusing on figuring out the Ducati GP24. On the other side of the garage, rookie Fermin Aldeguer gets his first taste of MotoGP, inheriting Frankie Carchedi as crew chief.

Aprilia - a #1 plate, if you can keep it

There is no doubt that the biggest changes for 2025 are in Aprilia. Three riders leaving, three new names taking their place. Biggest name of all is the newly crowned 2024 MotoGP champion Jorge Martin, who takes over Aleix Espargaro's side of the garage. He brings crew chief and confidant Daniele Romagnoli with him, and has a lot of work to do. On the other side of the garage, Marco Bezzecchi has Francesco Venturato to work with.

Martin and Bezzecchi will spend this test getting used to the Aprilia, and how different it is, with changes likely to come at Sepang. They should get a new engine, and a different aero package, as the aero package was generally regarded as a step back in braking for 2024.

At Trackhouse, there is a major clear out, with a large number of the team making way, as Davide Brivio tightens his control of the team. Raul Fernandez is the only rider on an Aprilia to stay put, and will continue to work with his current crew chief Noé Herrera. On the other side of the garage, Japanese rookie and Moto2 champion Ai Ogura inherits the crew of the departing Miguel Oliveira.

KTM - looking for a breakthrough

There are moves aplenty at KTM as well, with Pedro Acosta moving up to the factory team alongside Brad Binder, while Tech3 drops the GASGAS for KTM as part of a consolidation aimed at breaking through the company's financial problems. Those issues will not affect the MotoGP program, we are assured, but it is hard to see how some projects will have to be cut back or reduced, at the least. A little more on that at a later date.

Pedro Acosta is moving up to join Brad Binder with one goal: to challenge for the MotoGP title. But a lot of work is still needed on the RC16 to make that a reality, the bike suffering terrible vibration from the new Michelin rear which KTM have not been able to fully resolve through the season. The bike is strong in braking and at point-and-shoot tracks, but it needs more turning. As the vibration is one of the biggest hindrances in turning, addressing the vibration will be a massive step forward.

At Tech3, now Red Bull KTM again, Enea Bastianini and Maverick Viñales arrive to replace Acosta and Augusto Fernandez. Their mission on Tuesday is to adapt to the KTM RC16, which may be tougher than they think. Viñales is a rider who carries corner speed, the one thing the RC16 does not want to do right now. But the bike might suit Bastianini a little better.

Honda - on the rise

The two Japanese factories are delighted that the test is at Barcelona and not Valencia. Both Honda and Yamaha are struggling with rear grip, and at a low grip track like Montmelo, it is much easier to determine whether any traction improvements you find have come from the bike rather than the track.

The Honda Factory Team remains unchanged, though Giacomo Guidotti makes way for Cristhian Pupulin as Luca Marini's crew chief. At LCR, Somkiat Chantra inherits Takaaki Nakagami's crew chief Klaus Nohles.

While the task for Chantra is simple - adapt to a MotoGP bike - the other three Honda riders will have a lot of work ahead of them. Honda have been playing with engines, and the bike which the three have been using at the end of the season is a big step forward from the package they started the season with.

But it is not enough to be competitive. It is a step in the right direction, and much more is needed. The bike Stefan Bradl raced did not seem radically different from the bikes in the Repsol Honda garage.

There is a lot of fresh information flowing into the Honda garage. Romano Albesiano arrives from Aprilia, along with Aleix Espargaro and Espargaro's crew chief Antonio Jimenez. Espargaro is slated to ride on Tuesday, unusually for Honda, to get a chance to understand the bike and give some feedback. As new technical head of the MotoGP project, Albesiano will use this test to gather data ready to prepare the Sepang test and 2025.

Yamaha - Reinforcements arriving

There are big changes afoot at Yamaha, not least the loss of Yamaha Motor Racing MD Lin Jarvis. Alex Rins gets a new crew chief in the shape of David Muñoz, former crew chief to Valentino Rossi. But the biggest change is the arrival of Pramac as a satellite team.

The addition of two extra bikes, with experienced hands Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira to ride them, will provide vital feedback for Yamaha. Miller, in particular, could be a help, as the biggest help he gave to KTM was with electronics, the area that Yamaha have been struggling with.

But it is not just the riders who have to adapt. The entire Pramac structure has dealt with Ducati for the past 21 years, and now has to get used to a completely different mentality and way of working. The mechanics need to be able to work on the bike quickly and efficiently, and will be handling the bike for the first time. And the communication between an Italian team and Japanese engineers will not be as easy as it was with Ducati.

Yamaha will have more engines, frames, and likely aero, as they are forging ahead with a radical development path. What they probably won't have is the V4 engine, which is still on the dyno doing reliability tests, and probably won't make an appearance until 2025. Fabio Quartararo comes off the back of a couple of strong races, and is motivated to make a step forward. But the bike needs more rear grip, better acceleration, and a better compromise between top end power and rideability.

Yamaha have done an incredible amount of work this year. But there is still an awful lot to do.

Conclusions

Will we be able to draw many conclusions from Tuesday's Barcelona MotoGP test? The answer to that is not too many. The thing to look out for is how riders swapping bikes will manage to adapt to their new machines. Keep an eye on Jorge Martin and the Aprilia RS-GP, one of the most important stories of 2025. See how fast Marc Márquez can extract the most out of the GP25, essentially making a step of 2 years.

Watch how the Pramac team adapt to racing Yamahas, and how Oliveira and Miller adjust to riding an inline 4. See how Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini adapt to being in a satellite team, and second fiddle again, and riding a very different bike. And watch the progress of rookies Ai Ogura, Fermin Aldeguer, and Somkiat Chantra as they adapt to riding a MotoGP machine.

Do not pay too much attention to the timesheets. There are too many riders swapping bikes to make much sense of the times. But look at how riders adapt, at the progress in their lap times, whether they are improving on every run or hitting a wall. That will tell you a lot more about how 2025 will go than where they end up on the timesheet.

Teams, riders, bikes, crew chiefs for the 2025 season:

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