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Friday MotoGP Test Summary at Qatar: Whether Losing A Day Of Testing Matters

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They say a picture paints a thousand words, but the photo above, taken by Cormac Ryan Meenan for the Repsol Honda press release, actually needs several dozen just to explain what is going on.

No, it’s not raining. No, the Honda RC213V has not dropped a rod, blown a valve, or had an oil pipe come lose (Hondas only ever suffer ‘electrical problems’, of course).

That yellow cloud Pol Espargaro is trailing in his wake is sand, strewn all over the track by the strong winds and sandstorm that also played havoc with F1 in nearby Bahrain.

The strong winds and sand rendered the final day of the test completely useless. At one point, the entire session was red flagged due to the conditions. But even when the track was open, few were keen to ride.

Only 9 of the 29 riders present even took to the track, clocking up a grand total of 56 laps between them. And that included in and out laps. That is pretty much the average of what each rider was putting in on Thursday.

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MotoGP

Thursday MotoGP Test Summary at Qatar: Why Ducati & Yamaha Are Strong, And KTM Is Struggling

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There was a palpable sense of excitement after the record-setting laps by Jack Miller and Fabio Quartararo yesterday. Would more records be broken on Thursday?

They wouldn’t. Though both Maverick Viñales and Franco Morbidelli got under Marc Márquez’ original lap record at the track (a record which still stands, incidentally, given that records are only set on race weekends and not at tests), they still ended up several hundredths short of Miller’s blistering time from Wednesday.

And with the wind expected to pick up on Friday the prospect of a lap of 1’52 is growing ever more distant. Conditions will not be as absolutely perfect as they were on Wednesday again any time soon.

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MotoGP

Wednesday MotoGP Test Summary at Qatar: The Meaninglessness of Broken Records

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Records were smashed on Wednesday, and it didn’t mean a thing, other than that MotoGP riders can be pretty quick on a motorbike. But that we already knew.

First, Fabio Quartararo took over a tenth off the outright circuit record set by Marc Márquez during FP2 at the 2019 MotoGP round, the Monster Energy Yamaha rider posting a 1’53.263 to Márquez’ 1’53.380.

Then, on his last lap of the day, Jack Miller powered his Ducati to a lap of 1’53.183, just shy of two tenths faster than Márquez’ best lap.

Earlier in the day, Johann Zarco had broken Marc Márquez’ top speed record, being clocked through the speed trap at the end of the straight at 352.9 km/h, 0.9 km/h better than the Repsol Honda during the 2019 race.

Does this mean that Jack Miller will beat Fabio Quartararo after the Frenchman starts from pole, by exploiting the speed of his Ducati GP21 down the front straight? I mean, it could happen.

It’s definitely one of the many possible ways the season opener plays out when MotoGP 2021 gets underway on March 28th. But what happened on Wednesday, March 10th is not a reliable indication of anything.

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Podcast

Paddock Pass Podcast – Qatar MotoGP Preview Patreon Show

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A special treat for our Paddock Pass Podcast listeners this week, in addition to our regularly planned show that will come out Wednesday, today we are sharing with you one of our shows made just for the Paddock Pass Podcast Patreon supporters (say that three times fast).

In this one, we have Steve English and David Emmett on the mics and they discuss what to expect from the MotoGP teams as we head into the opening round at Qatar, with a preview of what we’ll see at the test (which happened this past weekend).

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MotoGP

What to Look for at the First Qatar MotoGP Test

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It has been a long winter. Longer than normal. Under normal circumstances, MotoGP bikes would have been on track in Sepang a month ago. But as we have learned the very hard way, these are anything but normal circumstances.

The Covid-19 pandemic has demanded the very utmost of human endurance and organizational ingenuity to try to have even the slightest semblance of normality.

But on Friday it starts, at last. The first official MotoGP test of the year kicks off with the shakedown test for the test riders, and an extra day of riding for the three true MotoGP rookies, Luca Marini, Enea Bastianini, and Jorge Martin.

The entire MotoGP grid will join for two days of action on Saturday and Sunday, and the prelude to the 2021 MotoGP season will be well and truly underway.

Entire MotoGP grid? Not quite. Marc Márquez will not be present at the test, the Repsol Honda rider still in the midst of the rehabilitation process from the broken right arm he suffered 8 months ago at Jerez.

He will not participate in either of the MotoGP tests. And it seems extremely unlikely he will participate in the first two races in Qatar either. But he will race this year, and his return will probably be sooner rather than later.

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MotoGP

The 2021 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike, In All Its Weird Glory

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For a variety of reasons, the MotoGP team unveilings have become a dreadful boring affair in the recent years.

It used to be, that these events would be our first chance to see the new bikes from the coming season, but now these new bike revisions have become too secret to show before the racing started.

Instead, the events have become a release of new livery designs, plastered on last year’s bikes. The liveries rarely change though, and with the current rules package, the same could be said about the machinery.

That is not the case with the factory Aprilia Racing squad, however. Developing the Aprilia RS-GP at a rapid pace, we are witnessing a constantly evolving motorcycle.

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MotoGP

Valentino Rossi Q&A: Returning to a Satellite Team, His Racing Future, & Being Competitive at 42

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2021 is going to be a decisive season for Valentino Rossi. Then again, we have been saying that for some time, as the 42-year-old Italian MotoGP legend continues his career well beyond what even the most experienced MotoGP hands ever expected.

Will he carry on racing? Has he still got what it takes to chase podiums and win races? Is a seventh MotoGP title and tenth Grand Prix title still a realistic possibility?

Those are big questions after Rossi’s worst ever season in Grand Prix racing. The Italian scored his lowest points total with 66 points from 12 races, his lowest points average at 5.5 points a race, and his worst finishing position in the championship with a 15th position.

He scored a single podium, matching his previous worst season tally in Grand Prix in 2011, when he also ended with just one podium during his disastrous first year at Ducati.

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