MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

On Monday, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team launched its 2024 livery. The paint scheme was the least interesting part of the presentation. It was, after all, pretty much identical to the livery used in the 2023 season. Given that very little has changed about the project, in terms of sponsors and team organization, there was no need for a revolution.

After the launch, team manager Francesco Guidotti and Pierer Mobility Group Motorsport Director Pit Beirer spoke to journalists about the goals of the team for 2024, how testing was going, and in the case of Beirer, looking ahead to the new MotoGP regulations due to be introduced in 2027. Much will change when the new set of technical regulations come into force in 2027. And some changes could be introduced earlier.

But first, Guidotti and Beirer talked about how the Sepang test had gone for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team. Ahead of the 2023 MotoGP season, there wasn’t much of a sense of where KTM stood. After Sepang, to outside observers, it looked like KTM were in much better shape going into 2024.

2023 was yet another terrible year for Honda in MotoGP. The Repsol Honda team went winless, and took just a handful of podiums in the sprint and one in a Sunday grand prix, scoring 49 fewer points in 2023 than they had in 2022, despite the addition of sprint races. Marc Marquez and Joan Mir only lined up on the grid on 12 of the 20 possible occasions, the two Spaniards missing races due to injury. And they broke the record for the number of crashes accumulated over a season, Marquez racking up 29, Mir hitting the gravel 24 times.

At LCR, Alex Rins missed most of 2023 after shattering his leg in a crash at Mugello, while Takaaki Nakagami rode conservatively to avoid crashing, starting all 20 rounds, but ending up 18th in the championship behind rookie Augusto Fernandez. Between them, Honda's test rider Stefan Bradl and WorldSBK rider Iker Lecuona started in 13 of the 20 rounds, including twice at the same round. Rins' impressive victory – in part due to Pecco Bagnaia crashing out of a comfortable lead – was the only consolation for the team and HRC.

It is a good job that Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall'Igna gave a media debrief at 9am on Tuesday morning, as it meant that a lot of journalists were into the Valencia circuit on time. Those aiming to arrive closer to 10am were bitterly disappointed: traffic was backed up on the motorway heading into the track almost like it was race day.

The crowd at the test is huge, the grandstand above the main building – the only part of the track that is open to the public – is rammed. Old hands say this is the fullest they have seen it since Valentino Rossi announced he was leaving Honda to ride for Yamaha in 2004. It's certainly busier than I remember the test in 2010, when Rossi left Yamaha for Ducati and Casey Stoner took the Repsol Honda ride.

They have come, of course, for Marc Marquez. Despite the fact there is so much more to see – Pedro Acosta's debut in MotoGP, Alex Rins on a Yamaha, Johann Zarco and Luca Marini on Hondas, Franco Morbidelli on a Pramac Ducati. And there are a lot of new parts on bikes, a completely new Honda, a lot of updates for Yamaha, and bits and pieces for KTM, Aprilia, and Ducati. Plus, signs of hope for the former RNF Aprilia squad.

Star of the show

With tension rising as the MotoGP championship enters its final phase, Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia are having to find ways of dealing with the pressure. Getting back on track was what worked for Martin, as it allowed him to stop worrying and start riding again.

"I felt this morning I was riding a bit blocked. You know the first two or three laps," the Pramac Ducati rider said. "But then as soon as I continued riding, I felt that I enjoy, I was confident and I was in P1 at the end of the season. So was OK. But for sure first laps were a bit difficult."

You wouldn't be able to tell that from the timesheets. Martin was fastest in the morning session of practice, and looked to be on course to be fastest in the afternoon as well, but Alex Marquez had other plans, firing in a lap of 1'57.823 at the end of the session. Quite the improvement for the Gresini Ducati rider, as last year, he struggled to get under the two minute mark. His best time on the LCR Honda in 2022 came in FP3, with a lap of 1'59.934, an improvement of over two seconds.