MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Jorge Martin's crash in the first hour of the Sepang MotoGP test has caused tension between Aprilia and the official tire supplier Michelin. Martin suffered a huge highside in the first hour of the test, when his rear tire let go in Turn 2 and flicked him over the bike. He landed very heavily, fracturing a metacarpal bone in his right hand and three metatarsal bones in his left foot.

Martin has since had surgery to fix the metatarsal with a screw, and is set to miss the final preseason test at Buriram. He hopes to be fit for the opening round of MotoGP at Buriram to be held from February 28th to March 2nd. But that means he will start the 2025 MotoGP season and attempt to defend his title with just 13 laps under his belt so far this year, and having played almost no role in developing the 2025 Aprilia RS-GP he will be riding this season.

On the Wednesday evening, Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola came into the media center to explain to journalists what Aprilia believed had happened. Though he did not accuse Michelin directly, he left little room for any other conclusions. "It was a bad crash for no reason, with no mistake on his side and no mistake on the bike’s side," Rivola said. Nor was it a cold tire. "The tires were in the right temperature and the right pressure. But we have no explanation in fact."

Out early

It has been three long days of testing, and a lot of work, for me as a journalist as well as for the riders and the teams. Of course, I did my work from the comfort of an air-conditioned press room, which made it a fraction easier than riding a 300 horsepower motorcycle as fast as possible in temperatures of well over 30°C.

So no long and detailed analysis tonight. Plenty of time for that in the coming days. For now, here are my initial reactions to what we saw and heard at the Sepang test.

Ducati's dilemma

There can be no doubt that the Ducati Desmosedici GP24 is still an outstanding motorcycle. The three GP24s were in the top four or five on the first two days of the test, and Alex Márquez bettered Pecco Bagnaia's time from last year at the Sepang test by nearly two tenths of a second.

So can Ducati make a better motorcycle? Even Ducati aren't sure. Both Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez are yet to be fully convinced that the GP25 engine is an improvement on the GP24. It has a bit more power, delivers it more smoothly, but it loses out in braking. And there is more time to be gained (or in this case, lost) in braking than in acceleration.

The factory Ducati riders spent almost all the test on the GP24 aero package, as well as the GP24 frame, while Ducati engineers tried swapping out all sorts of different parts in different configurations to try to improve the bike.

After the disaster of the first day of the Sepang MotoGP test, we got through the second day without losing another rider, reducing the rate of attrition to just 1.5 MotoGP riders out through injury a day. No doubt the massive crashes of Jorge Martin, Raul Fernandez, and Fabio Di Giannantonio had served as a useful warning of what is at stake in this preseason. But the conditions helped too.

It was a lot hotter on Thursday, and the sun drove air and track temperatures up much closer to what we would normally expect in Sepang. Yesterday's 38°C track temperatures were replaced by a much more usual 55°C. And also, nobody was much interested in using the medium rear, concentrating instead on the soft.

"I think the medium here is the same as Silverstone and Barcelona, but we struggle a lot to make it work," Fabio Quartararo told us. "The gap between the soft and the medium is too much and the drop is the same as the soft. So, I’m not using the medium any more, and I think everybody is using the soft."

A day relative free of drama - there were still more than a few crashes, including both Ducati Lenovo riders, though nothing serious - and a day on which the riders could focus on working. The heat kept a lot of riders in the garage for a couple of hours around 2pm, then a very brief rain shower chased everyone off the track again, but 15 minutes later work was underway again.

It has been quite the day at the Sepang International Circuit. The first day of the official MotoGP test at Sepang and we are already three riders down. For the second consecutive year, Raul Fernandez has crashed during testing and ruled himself out of the remainder of the test, fracturing a metacarpal bone in his left hand, as well has his little toe. Fabio Di Giannantonio had a silly crash, landing a wheelie badly at the end of the day after doing his practice starts, and breaking his left collarbone.

But the biggest news is that Jorge Martin had a massive highside at Turn 2, after completing just a dozen laps. The force of the crash was so severe that he fractured the fifth metacarpal of his right hand and the third, fourth, and fifth metatarsals of his left foot. The injury on his right hand is to the head of the metacarpal, where the bone in the hand joins the bone of the little or pinky finger. The metatarsal bones are the long bones in his foot joining his ankle to his toes.

The injury to his right hand will probably rule the reigning world champion out for the Buriram test, which takes place next week, and will leave him to ride the fully homologated 2025 Aprilia RS-GP for the first time at the opening round of MotoGP in Buriram at the start of March.

The Blame Game

On the eve of the official Sepang IRTA MotoGP test, we are leaving the realm of blind guesswork and heading toward the world of speculation. We've seen the liveries, heard from the riders, even in at least one case seen the actual bikes. We've seen the times from the shakedown test, where test riders, rookies, and riders for teams with concessions have had up to three days on track.

(Many choose not to do all three days, as three days of shakedown and three days of official test takes a heavy toll, even for MotoGP riders in prime physical condition. There is no substitute for the brutal forces a 300hp, 157kg MotoGP machine impose on a rider.)

We know a little more from the shakedown test - times were fast, Fabio Quartararo two tenths of a second off his qualifying lap for November's race, and Ai Ogura posting impressive lap times throughout - but it is still hard to make a comparison with last year. Is the track in better shape? Is the grip better? Are the bikes faster?

Devoid of meaning?

Unsurprisingly, when KTM's press officer started the online debriefs with journalists at the KTM launch, we were told that neither the riders nor the team managers would be able to comment on the Austrian manufacturer's financial woes. That would have to wait until KTM's Sporting Director Pit Beirer spoke to us at the end of the day (and once his computer had finished rebooting itself for the umpteenth time). But Beirer was very forthcoming about the current situation, KTM's future plans, and how they are approaching the coming season and beyond.

"It’s been a rough winter," Beirer said with a feeling for understatement. "But it’s nice to talk about racing." Racing is what KTM does, and what they will continue to do, he insisted. "Motorsport is a major part of our company. It’s not just our passion – it’s part of our business model. We go racing. Attached to our racing activities, there is a market. We wouldn’t be part of this restructuring [process] if that wasn’t the case."

In four weeks time the lights will go out at Phillip Island and the 2025 WorldSBK season will start. The campaign is already underway, as WorldSBK is in the middle of the Iberian Winter Test season. Two days at Jerez followed by two days at Portimao are ideal for getting ready for the new season. Four days of running will be complimented by two days of testing in Australia before the first race of the season.

It’s hard to find a better way to prepare for the year. The south of Spain offers the promise of good weather and the Algarve almost guarantees it. These winter sun destinations are popular tourist traps at the time of year. What could go wrong?

Quite a bit it seems. Two days of rain-interrupted testing saw the value of the Jerez days questioned by teams. WorldSBK regulations limit teams to just ten days of testing throughout the season for their race riders. Was it better to get track time now to be ready for Australia or to save the days for later in the year? The majority of teams opted to sit it out. The expense of travelling to Jerez was balanced by the value of running.

In the second half of the Ducati Lenovo MotoGP team presentation, the host, Barbara Pedrotti, asked Ducati test rider Michele Pirro how he would sum up the Bologna factory's 2025 MotoGP project in a single word. Pirro chose the phrase "Dream Team", which prompted Pedrotti to give him a pass for ignoring the set criteria as, she said, he had said the phrase quickly enough for it to be a single word.

In the context of MotoGP in 2025, the pairing of Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez certainly qualifies as a dream team. The rider who finally brought the riders championship back to Ducati after 15 years, then followed it up with another and came close to making it three in a row, paired with the greatest rider of his generation, and possibly of all time. As team manager Davide Tardozzi pointed out, they have 11 titles between them.

Much of the attention at the launch of Aprilia's MotoGP project for 2025 centered on the question of whether Jorge Martin would run the #1 plate or continue to run his traditional #89. It was never really going to be a question, Martin explained as he unveiled his bike. "I didn't have any doubt about running the #1, because I've been fighting for this all my life." Perhaps there is a generational shift taking place, with riders preferring to run the #1 plate again after Pecco Bagnaia broke the perceived curse in 2023.

The unveiling was done well, though it wasn't captured on the live video stream. As Aprilia PR boss Antonio Boselli spoke to riders Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi before the livery was unveiled, the backdrop behind Martin showed his old number, #89.

With the 2025 MotoGP season slowly starting to heave into view, it's time to make a few predictions of what may lie ahead. In the second part of my predictions for the coming season, I offer a few more hostages to fortune.

Jorge Martin - sacrificing 2025 for 2026

Jorge Martin's 2024 championship campaign was a huge improvement over 2023. The Pramac Ducati rider learned from the mistakes he made at the start of his 2023 campaign, and worked to improve them. The campaign wasn't quite flawless - he crashed out of the lead at both Jerez and Sachsenring, throwing away 50 points - but it was a massive step forward.

At Mugello, we learned that Ducati had chosen Marc Márquez over Jorge Martin to partner Pecco Bagnaia in the factory squad. And on Monday evening, after a rained off test, just as we were about to pack up and head home, we were told that Jorge Martin had signed with Aprilia.

It was unexpected, but not a surprise. The main reason that riders leave a team, factory, or manufacturer is because they do not feel they are being treated with the respect they deserve. And being passed over for the factory slot definitely felt like a slight.