Analysis: What we learned from the Phillip Island MotoGP test
MotoGP pre-season testing has now passed its halfway point with the Phillip Island test - and the state of play for the 2017 campaign is becoming ever clearer. Here's what we learned from the three days in Australia.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Honda's progress is clear
There is no doubt that the position Honda finds itself now is a massive improvement over where it had been last year at the same point in the pre-season. Marc Marquez might say that his bike - and specifically the new engine - are not quite ready yet, but clearly you can’t lap as fast as he did in Australia with a bike that is not yet ready.
Apart from the laptimes, the best piece of news for HRC is that the team now has a clear direction to follow, having diagnosed the strong and weak points of the latest RC213V. Marquez completed 271 laps (or 1,192km) at Phillip Island - making him the most active rider on track across the three days.
One of those laps was only two tenths of a second slower than Vinales’ best, but in terms of race pace, Marquez was slightly stronger than his new rival in the Yamaha garage.
In addition, Dani Pedrosa, third-fastest in Australia, looked much more comfortable on the new prototype as well, which shows the development of the RC213V has made an important step forward.
Lightning-fast Vinales a lock for title challenge
The picture that Phillip Island painted has two riders as near-guaranteed title contenders, with reigning champion Marquez one of them.
We still have to find out if there will be a third man in the contest - it could very well be Valentino Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo - but what appears absolutely clear is that Maverick Vinales will be part of whatever title showdown happens.
In addition to the amazing speed shown by Vinales over a single lap in Australia (he beat his own lap record from last year by six tenths of a second), we've also now seen him produce consistent pace. Furthermore, he's not making any noticeable mistakes. Having gone 16 races without crashing out last year, he is yet to take a tumble as a Yamaha rider.
The prospect of seeing the Vinales-Yamaha combination in competitive trim is tantalising, and anyone who still doubts the young Spaniard has what it takes to be part of the elite club of MotoGP 'aliens' will surely have to think again.
The Doctor is in trouble
Valentino Rossi has been hiding it as best as he can, but a strange atmosphere looks to have been created within his side of the Yamaha garage. The Italian is struggling - whichever way you cut it, at Phillip Island, Vinales was clearly the faster Yamaha rider.
Rossi was four tenths slower than his new teammate over a single lap, and up to six tenths per lap on long runs. In a race weekend, that kind of gap would probably see him finish somewhere around sixth.
“There is a lot to do. We still have doubts and in the next test in Qatar we will look for different ways to improve," Rossi conceded, the Italian unhappy about the lack of rear-end grip after a long run. "I am not satisfied yet as we have not been able to solve the problems we had."
So far, Rossi has struggled to follow the frontrunners - but the Italian still has time to right the situation in the final pre-season test at Qatar, even if the season opener is getting closer and closer.
Ducati and Lorenzo off the pace
As Andrea Dovizioso said, there are different ways to look at Ducati’s performance. According to the Italian, the current situation is better than the state of things at the same point last year.
However, that’s not exactly going to be much consolation for Jorge Lorenzo, given where Ducati expected to be in mid-February after it had landed the three-time MotoGP champion's signature.
Unfortunately for Lorenzo, the Desmosedici doesn’t turn the way he wants it to, which is negating one of the strongest points of his riding style. Ducati is now starting to air its grievances about the winglet ban once again, but that's a rule everybody knew was coming.
The Spaniard's pace on his longest run (13 laps) was about nine tenths per lap slower than the benchmark, and that is not at all what Ducati was planning for.
Still, we're yet to see how Lorenzo and Dovizioso will fare in Qatar, one of the circuits where the Ducati should excel. We'll also get to see what Gigi Dall'Igna, the Ducati team’s technical director, has up his sleeve, as he has hinted at some surprises - probably related to a new fairing.
Suzuki still a question mark
There remains a fair bit of uncertainty about Suzuki's 2017 prospects after the Australian test. If all looked good and positive in Valencia and Malaysia, Andrea Iannone, the marque's new big hope, didn’t feel too comfortable at Phillip Island - and he struggled to explain why.
Although Iannone’s pace in the long runs was about two tenths a lap faster than that of teammate Alex Rins, the rookie looked much more content after his Phillip Island showing - and managed to produce a faster overall laptime than the Italian.
Suzuki also showed how it is planning to work around the winglet ban, although nobody in the team was particularly keen to talk about the new design of the GSX-RR's fairing, which Rins and Iannone both tried for the first time on Thursday.
In two weeks' time at Losail, we’ll get a better idea of how successful Suzuki's off-season efforts have been, but the Phillip Island test suggests the team still has plenty of work ahead of it.
Tech 3's rookies are on it
Over at Yamaha's satellite team Tech 3, Moto2 graduates Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco are already making a big impact in the premier class.
The acclimatisation for both riders looks like it’s going well, surely facilitated by a Yamaha M1 prototype that won several races last season in the hands of Rossi and Lorenzo.
Folger remarkably set the fourth fastest lap time of the week, despite a last-minute crash on Friday, while Zarco, the reigning Moto2 world champion, ran a very consistent race simulation of 20 laps with a remarkable rhythm.
The Frenchman, who was 14th fastest, admitted that Phillip Island is not the ideal track to take any risks at - but left Phillip Island with reinforced confidence.
KTM's development race
New manufacturer KTM seems determined to spice up the world championship scene, and it is making strides in that goal. The Austrian marque left Malaysia with clear ideas about what areas needed improving - and by the time Australia came around, market gains have been made.
“We are very close. I do not know what the technicians have done, but the bike feels different; nothing like the one we rode in Valencia,” said Pol Espargaro at Phillip Island after finishing the test only 1.3s off the pace of Vinales.
KTM managed to extract the strengths of the chassis that had been tested at Sepang, and the result was mostly positive.
Ahead of three days test in Qatar, the factory from Mattighofen expects to have a new engine that delivers the power in a slightly softer way, which should make things quite a bit easier for Espargaro and teammate Bradley Smith.
Aprilia moves at its own pace
The arrival of ex-Suzuki man Aleix Espargaro looks to to have brought renewed energy to Aprilia.
The Italian manufacturer brought to Australia a new fairing, which produced very encouraging data in the wind tunnel, although it remains to be seen whether that will be corroborated at a more representative track like Qatar.
As for Phillip Island, the experienced Espargaro said he was very happy with the feeling from his new bike, especially at the front end.
Relatively fast laptimes seemed to come easy for the Granollers-born rider during short runs, although it is yet to be seen how the RS-GP will handle its tyres over a race distance.
The Italian brand also expects to test its new engine in Qatar, something which should take it a little closer to the frontrunners.
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