MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

 
Jorge Martin took the Aprilia RS-GP he first tried after the last race in Barcelona for his first run of the Sepang test. So you can see he is feeling his way up to speed, especially with the medium rear tire. 
His body language is conservative, his head not too far down, his body not too far over to his right (his shoulder is over the middle of the tank). He is focused but cautious. 
Martin's Sepang test would not last much longer than the top picture. Less than 10 laps later, he was flicked off the 2025 prototype (not this bike, but the bike Aprilia intend to race in 2025) and fractured a metacarpal and a footful of metatarsals.

 
For comparison, here is Martin at the Sepang round last year. It's not a fair comparison, as it's not the same angle or corner, but you can see how much more comfortable and committed he is. 
His head is much further down, his body is much further over the bike (his left shoulder is near the right side of the tank), his torso is much further forward. 
This is probably also due to having almost an entire season of racing under his belt and a title on the line. But it's useful to get a sense of his normal riding position.

 
A better comparison is probably Raul Fernandez. In his third year on an Aprilia and with the same team, Fernandez looks a lot more comfortable than Martin on the bike. 
His head is further down and further forward, his shoulder is further over the bike, his inside shoulder is dropped further. 
Fernandez would also end up injuring himself, but that was due to locking the front in braking. He intends to try to ride at the Buriram test, which will be a huge relief for Aprilia, as they need all the rider input they can get on the 2025 bike.

 
Ai Ogura had already spent three days on the Trackhouse Aprilia RS-GP at the shakedown test, one of the perks of being a rookie. And that experience really shows. 
Ogura's position signals he is very comfortable, which was the impression I got from watching trackside on the last day. His head is down and forward, his shoulder dropped, his inside arm tucked, his outside arm extended. 
Ogura's adaptation has gone well. He finished ahead of a swathe of MotoGP veterans, four tenths behind Marco Bezzecchi and three tenths behind fastest rookie Fermín Aldeguer. Off to a strong start.

 
Fabio Quartararo looks comfortable and fast, doing everything right. The only negative point here is his number is the same color as Franco Morbidelli's was at Yamaha, a cause for confusion throughout the test.

 
Brad Binder is a little shorter than Quartararo, and his body language shows it. He has to stretch his left arm further of the tank, and his head is further down. 
He is having to put more force through his inside peg than the Frenchman, though. Where Quartararo's right leg is relaxed, Binder's is tense. Is that the KTM or Binder's size deficit?

 
For a rider who has just turned 30 this year, Maverick Viñales has a very modern and aggressive riding style. He has his head and body a long way off the bike, his right arm tucked in tight, his right leg pushing down. 
Keeping that position is tough. Tucking the right arm in like that puts the right wrist at a very extreme angle.

 
Is Alex Marquez comfortable on the Ducati GP24? Let me check. Hmm, fastest lap time of all three days, fastest sprint race simulation... I think it's safe to say he feels completely at home on the bike. 
That shines through in his body language too. Marquez looks relaxed and completely at ease on the bike. He's pushing, but he has everything under control

 
They may be brothers, but their styles reflect their different physical sizes. Tall and lanky Alex doesn't have to move as much as shorter and squatter Marc. 
You can see how much more Marc has to stretch by the fact his left pinky is almost hanging off the bar. Alex can still wrap his pinky around the clipon. 
Marc is stretching his left arm across the tank, and has his right shoulder down and his head forward. He looks at home.

 
The most radical body position on the grid. Pedro Acosta is as far off the bike as he can get, his left hand barely hanging on. His head is as close to the tarmac as possible, his left shoulder outisde the right side of the fairing. 
Acosta's wrist position is even more extreme than Viñales'. He is forcing his elbow inside, which puts his wrist at an extreme angle, his hand in the pose of a swan. 
His right hand is nearly halfway off the clipon. Where other riders have about a finger's width between their hand and the inside of the throttle grip, he has about twice that. 
An interesting oddity here is that Acosta is wearing two different gloves. On his left hand he has the gloves seen in the launch photos. On his right hand, he is wearing a red glove, with, by the look of it, a different knuckle protection. None of the other Alpinestars riders are using these gloves.

 
From new school to old school. Hoary old veteran Johann Zarco has a completely different position on the bike. His body is closer to the center line of the bike, his elbow is dropped, giving his wrist a more natural position. 
Zarco's head is forward, rather than down, and there is a lot of space between his left arm and the tank. 
He may look radically different to Acosta on the bike, but the two were separated by just 0.029 on the timesheets. 
This is the beauty of motorcycle racing. There isn't one way to go fast. You use the tools you have at your disposal to try to coax the laws of physics to bend to your will.

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