MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

As widely expected, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team has announced that Michele Pirro is to take the place of Fabio Di Giannantonio for the final round of MotoGP, the Solidarity Round taking place in Barcelona in place of at the flood-stricken Valencia circuit.

Pirro will be taking over from Andrea Iannone, who had subbed for Di Giannantonio at Sepang, after Di Giannantonio finished his season early to have surgery on his left shoulder.

The reason for choosing Michele Pirro is simple. As Ducati's test rider, it is useful for him to get some time on track ahead of the all-important post-race test on the Tuesday after the race. Pirro is still the key figure in Ducati's development program, and having him on track with the MotoGP riders gives him a chance to get up to speed in the class again.

The MotoGP paddock has barely landed back in Europe, or it brings yet more news. Part of that is as a result of the cancellation of the Valencia round of MotoGP due to the damage done by the flooding in the region around the circuit, and the moving of the last round of MotoGP to Valencia. And part of it is due to the fact that EICMA, the most important motorcycle show in the world, is currently running. So here's a rundown of a few news items.

Tickets on sale for Barcelona 

 Tickets have gone on sale for the Barcelona MotoGP round. You can now buy 3-day passes on either the Barcelona Circuit website or the MotoGP.com website. There are five categories of ticket on sale, depending on which grandstand you wish to sit in, varying in price from €55.30 to €108.50. 

It has been a busy week for the Misano World Circuit. A wide selection of riders from the MotoGP paddock were on track on Tuesday and Wednesday, on a variety of machines. There were test riders, MotoGP riders, and Moto2 riders, some testing and some training ready for the race here in two weeks time.

Four MotoGP manufacturers were present. KTM had test rider Dani Pedrosa, while Ducati had Michele Pirro. For Yamaha, Monster Energy riders Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins were present, along with temporary test rider Andrea Dovizioso. Dovizioso had been brought in to replace Yamaha's official test rider Cal Crutchlow, who is still recovering from complications to a hand injury. For HRC, Repsol Honda riders Luca Marini and Joan Mir attended on Wednesday, with a long list of things to test.

After a weekend off, MotoGP is about to head into its most brutal stretch since the Covid-19 season of 2020 forced Dorna to squeeze 14 races into 18 weeks, with four consecutive triple header weekends. The difference then, of course, is that all of those triple headers involved two races at the same track, followed by one transfer within Europe.

The next two triple headers see the teams compete in 6 races in 7 weeks, with the first triple header split between 2 continents (Mandalika - Phillip Island - Buriram), and the second triple header split between 3 continents (Sepang - Qatar - Valencia). And they will be racing sprint races on Saturday as well as the Sunday grand prix. It's going to be draining, physically and emotionally, especially for the teams and mechanics.

So what can we expect from the week ahead? Here are a few things to keep your eye on.

Marquez speaks

Rain forced the WorldSBK teams assembled at Jerez to abandon the test planned for the past two days. Though the weather was better on Thursday than it had been on Wednesday, the track took a long time to dry out, and with only 8 days of testing for the season, the teams decided to call off the test instead.

Honda and Kawasaki will return to Jerez next week, with Honda testing for two days, on January 27th and 28th, and Kawasaki to test on 28th. The forecast for that period is currently for good weather, which promises a dry track.