MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The two preseason tests for the MotoGP class are two entirely different beasts. Sepang is like Christmas morning, when the kids rush down to unpack all of the new toys laid there by Santa. Or in this case, the engineering groups of assorting motorcycle manufacturers.

Qatar, on the other hand, is more like the morning of departing on a long trip. There's a big list of things to check before you pull the door closed behind you and depart on your adventure. In this case, the 2024 MotoGP season.

In effect, Sepang is the filter, and Qatar is the finalization. Sepang is the place where the 2024 package is assembled, Qatar is the place it is knocked into shape ready for the race here in three weeks time.

Or as Repsol Honda new boy Luca Marini put it at Sepang, "Here in Sepang we have so many things to try, so we don’t have time to make a proper setting for this track. I think the Qatar test will be completely different because in just two days you will be ready for the weekend. Here [at Sepang] you have to do all the dirty job of preseason. Every time we need to wait a lot between one exit and another to try this and try that. So we are working on all the direction, all the parts of the bike."

The fact that the first race is at the same place as the last test means that it is necessarily useful to spend your time working on setup ahead of the season opener. An issue made more pressing by the fact that the introduction of sprint races has drastically reduced the amount of setup time during a race weekend. So you can expect to see factories and teams spend at least one day working on race setup rather than pure development.

This is just one of the downsides of testing at Qatar, though this is not unique to the circuit. The same thing happened at Portimão last year. The problems unique to Qatar have a lot to do with the fact that the race, and therefore the test, is held at night. The test is due to run from 2pm until 9pm.

Sunset in Qatar is currently 5:29pm, slap bang in the middle of the test. That means that the first part of the test is conducted in the heat of the day, with the Arabian sun beating down on the track and raising the track temperature. The second half of the test takes place as the track cools, right through the Goldilocks zone around race time, and then on into the evening.

Late running may not be a good option at Qatar. The forecast is for daytime temperatures in the mid 20s °C, with temperatures dropping to 16 or 17 °C by the end of the test at 9pm. That is still nominally well above the dew point. But that doesn't eliminate the risk of the track getting a cover of moisture as the air cools, making it tricky indeed.

Then there's track condition. The recent resurfacing means the track has outstanding grip, once it's cleaned up. But the fact that the circuit is surrounded by the arid Qatari landscape means that it is perpetually being dusted by a layer of sand and dirt. It takes a while to clean up.

Despite all the caveats, testing at the Lusail International Circuit is also extremely useful. Especially when done directly after testing in Sepang. The cool night air packs a lot more oxygen than the oppressive tropical heat of Sepang, changing the engine character significantly. An engine which may seem quite compliant in Sepang may feel much more aggressive in Qatar, providing a useful benchmark.

The grip of the track is good as well. This can be both a good and a bad thing, depending on your needs. It means you can work on braking and acceleration, test outright speed and get a good sense of how well your aerodynamics package is working. But if your biggest problem is working with used tires - looking at you here, Honda - then it really doesn't help. The grip is there because its coming from the track, rather than from the bike, and telling the two apart can be very hard.

Bearing all that in mind, what have the factories got to test in Qatar? Here's a quick rundown of their biggest needs.

Ducati - ready to rumble

After the Sepang tests, the Ducati riders were quietly confident. Pecco Bagnaia told us he was feeling much happier with the progress of the bike this year than he had been in 2023, and he went on to successfully defend his title last year. That is a strong sign for Bagnaia, and should be a concern for any of his rivals not also on a Ducati.

At Sepang, Ducati got through most of the work they had to do. The riders were happy with the engine, and though it still needed some refinement, especially on the first touch of the throttle, it was an improvement overall. As far as aero packages were concerned, after some worries at the end of the second day, by the end of the test everyone was happy with the new fairing brought.

The new fairing is a combination of the two versions used in 2023. The front side pods and downwash ducts stay, and behind them, a wider section for creating ground effect. That, too, contains a downwash duct, with a slot at the top where air enters and an exit underneath the bike.

What we are likely to see among the Ducati riders is the first feints in the 2024 championship. In Sepang, Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia pointedly avoided reference to one another, a sign of the growing antipathy between the two. The pair are once again on course to fight for the title, with the added prospect of Martin having his pick of alternative factory rides to switch to.

The factory Ducati seat may also be one of those seats. At the Sepang test, Enea Bastianini showed the kind of pace that secured him the seat in the factory team in the first place, but given that Sepang is one of his best tracks, it is hard to nail down whether his pace is real or just an artifact of being at a circuit which suits him. Qatar will be a better test of where he stands ahead of 2024.

Marco Bezzecchi has work to do at Qatar. The Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider struggled with braking at Sepang, the Ducati GP23 a very different bike to the GP22 he rode last year. The advantage of being on a satellite team is being able to focus on setup, and he will need all the time he can get to fix that.

And then of course there is Marc Marquez. Marquez told us that he was still in the process of adapting to the Ducati, after spending 11 seasons on the Honda. Especially the way he had to pick the bike up out of corners and accelerate, the Gresini Ducati rider said. Despite that, he was already plenty fast. Qatar is not one of his better tracks, so where he ends up at the end of the test will be a strong signal of what to expect for the rest of the season.

Aprilia - Moving on with aero

Aleix Espargaro left the Sepang test as fifth fastest, right in the middle of the fast Ducati. But he also felt he still had a lot to work on with the 2024 version of the Aprilia RS-GP.

Aprilia had taken a slightly different approach to some of the other factories. The manufacturer from Noale had brought a massive pile of aerodynamic parts to assemble in to the best possible package, and spent pretty much all three days of the Sepang test figuring out what worked best with what. By the end, they were pretty close to understanding which fairing, fork wings, front fender, and tail package they think will work best.

That still leaves a lot to do. Though Espargaro and Viñales tested swingarms and engine configurations, they spent most of their time on aero, and now have to move on to finalizing the bike.

The engine configuration has been decided, but Espargaro felt the engine lacked torque, especially accelerating out of corners. It is a perennial struggle for the RS-GP - no matter how changes on the bikes, they cannot escape their basic characters, the result of their initial design processes. But Qatar provides a good place to work on that.

Maverick Viñales has a little bit more work to do. The Spaniard was never really comfortable with the way the bike stopped. Espargaro suffered similar issues, but his longer experience on the bike helped him manage a little better.

The problem is braking in a straight line, and the transition from braking upright to trail braking into the corner. The bike has more grip in braking while leaned over than it does in straight up braking, and the transition between the two states unsettles the bike. With grip on the track in Lusail, that should offer options to work on that.

At the Trackhouse Racing team, Miguel Oliveira will continue his work on adapting to the 2024 Aprilia - a jump of two years for the Portuguese rider - while Raul Fernandez has to redeem himself for his crash on the first day of Sepang. A crash in which, it turns out, he fractured his hip and pelvis in three places. Of the riders on the 2024 MotoGP grid, Fernandez is in the weakest position. He has to be sensible and make progress, show he is worth keeping for next year. And that battle starts at the Lusail International Circuit.

KTM - Rising stars

KTM, like Ducati, got a long way through their program at Sepang. The Austrian factory had a lot of aero parts, as well as a new exhaust, a new engine, and updated variations of their carbon fiber frame. The fact that they whittled most of those down to a basic working package is a sign of solid progress.

The various aero parts - two different versions of their new ground effect fairing, multiple versions of the front fender, including one with a small wing, plus the new air intake - need to be reconfirmed again. Experiments will also continue with the new stubby exhaust KTM brought to Sepang, and a solution to the fact that it was throwing up so much heat it was causing problems for the swingarm.

While there were smiling faces in the Red Bull KTM garage, all eyes were on the GASGAS Tech3 pit box. Pedro Acosta continued to stun, impressing everyone with his attitude, his maturity, and above all, his speed. Acosta was fast over a single lap, but he also had the pace over longer runs, a sign he understood how to manage tires. Qatar will be a solid sign of just how fast he is progressing.

On the other side of the garage, Augusto Fernandez has to step up. The Spaniard was not comfortable throughout the Sepang test, and it showed in his times. Was he intimidated by his new rookie teammate? He himself put his issues down to problems getting used to the bike. These two days will be very important indeed.

Big in Japan - Yamaha and Honda's opposite problems.

It is easy to focus on the various parts tested by both Yamaha and Honda at the Sepang tests, but that is to miss the much bigger, more important story for the Japanese factories. Organizational changes and a radical shake up of the way they approach MotoGP is the real story for both Yamaha and Honda. Such changes may bring only small gains in the short term, but they are vital to the success of both factories in the medium and long term.

At Yamaha, the arrival of Max Bartolini as performance engineer has changed the way the Japanese factory work during a test, creating a more thorough and less risk-averse approach to testing. There is a sense that everyone, and especially the factory, is more committed to improving their situation. It certainly already helped with the more powerful engine Yamaha have brought.

For Honda, the changes in the upper echelons of management, and a different approach to development - a little more open to taking chances, while retaining their Japanese thoroughness - is also showing signs of paying off. Honda brought a radically new version of their RC213V to the Valencia test, then brought another major update to Sepang. New aero, a new engine, a new swingarm, and more, all of which seemed to work.

The two Japanese factories find themselves with opposite problems. Yamaha have found more speed with the new M1 engine, and given Fabio Quartararo much of the power he had been asking for. The engine is still aggressive, and the electronics need refining. But basically, the bike laps quickly and has excellent pace.

What the Yamaha can't do is post a quick lap in qualifying trim. Just like last year, the M1 can't exploit the grip of a new tire to go fast enough to put them at the front of the grid. The bike is fast, but is likely to be starting in traffic again.

Honda is the opposite. The latest version of the RC213V is quick with a new tire, but they are still lacking rear grip. Once the tire drops, then the rear starts spinning again, and the Honda riders can find no drive.

That's not to say that HRC have not made major steps forward. The 2024 bike is worlds better than the 2023 machine. It's just that this is the area where the least progress has been made. And given that it was already the bike's weakest point, that is something of a problem.

Whether Qatar is the right place to try to fix that is a good question. The resurfaced track has bags of grip, camouflaging the underlying issues with the bike. That makes identifying improvements hard.

But Honda doesn't have a choice in this. The test is in Qatar, and consequently, those are the cards they, and all the other factories have to deal with. The trick they face is to make the best of what they have. It's the last chance they have.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting MotoMatters.com. You can help by either taking out a subscription, supporting us on Patreon, by making a donation, or contributing via our GoFundMe page. You can find out more about subscribing to MotoMatters.com here.