After the intense end to the 2024 season, the majority of the MotoGP grid has quickly focused on the next challenge and its first stop: pre-season testing. The first of them was on the same stage as the Solidarity Grand Prix, which put an end to the campaign. A way to be able to draw conclusions about the new motorcycles, for the riders who change teams and mounts to adapt and for the new ones who come to the category to do so without having to wait until the end of January to get on the bike.
The truth is that whether preseason tests are important or not depends on who you ask, and what material they have available. But what is certain is that a track like the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya can be, due to its characteristics, a good test track by combining a long straight, strong braking, fast corners and slower, linked ones. In any case, what is certain is that this first preseason test tells us that many things have changed, but the result remains the same.
Ducati: 24 or 25, but also at the front in preseason
HERE WE GO THEN!
Time for @marcmarquez93 to paint the town Ducati red 🔴#BarcelonaTest pic.twitter.com/71j9skHBAZ
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 19, 2024
Ducati is the MotoGP reference and has been in these first steps of the season as far as the time table is concerned, although in some tests the one-lap times can be deceiving. That is why Álex Márquez with the GP24 was the fastest does not have a meaning in itself, taking into account that it was his only 38 in the entire test. But it does confirm that Álex himself has been faster with the GP24 than with the GP23 and that in his first contact.
The official riders, Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez, have begun to get to know next season’s bike and will now have to refine the details, although it is expected that at a competitive level the GP25 will not represent a leap in performance. The third official rider, Di Gianantonio, has missed the tests due to injury and perhaps he would have been the perfect thermometer when jumping from the 2023 bike to the 2025 one. But life is what it is and at Ducati it is still red.
And apart from Fermín Aldeguer, who was taking his first steps and was the best rookie, and Michel Pirro who acted as tester, the other four Ducati are in the top 7 of these tests.
KTM: Experiments, successful?
A close look at @Beast23‘s nasty crash 💥
Glad to see the Italian is OK while the bike took the biggest hit 👍😮#BarcelonaTest pic.twitter.com/ITlApZ6XNM
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 19, 2024
Looking ahead to 2025, KTM is reinforced in terms of riders with the arrival of two fast and experienced riders such as Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini. And at KTM it is evident that there was a problem when Pedro Acosta, if it were not for the contact on Saturday with Marc Márquez, would have been the best KTM. A logical change that comes accompanied by more and more changes.
The most evident in the aerodynamic package, something that the Austrians have been working hard on in that section for some time. The RC16s are becoming less and less pretty, but if they are more effective it will have been worth it. What it does seem is that the sensations and indications of Viñales and Bastianini (including the fall) are going in the same direction as those of Pol Espargaró and Dani Pedrosa, and that may bear fruit over the course of next year.
Aprilia: Revolution by deadlines
Fearlessly into the groove. #BarcelonaTest pic.twitter.com/OkRufn41ME
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 19, 2024
The brand that is most renewed for the new season is Aprilia, and it is possible that this is reflected in the preseason tests in which Raúl Fernández has been the fastest. The Madrid native is the only driver who repeats for 2025 and his experience is surely a good degree.
Even so, as is logical, the focus was on Jorge Martín and his adaptation to Noale’s motorcycle. Bordering the top 10 and one second behind Álex Márquez’s time, it can be considered a promising result, but perhaps the best part was seeing the ease with which he adapted to the bike. Both Martín and Aprilia have a huge challenge in 2025 and working well in the preseason is important. After a long time, the man from Madrid is the leader of a project and his obligation is to show that he can take control and replace Aleix Espargaró with flying colors.
Yamaha: small flashes, big hopes
Test done! Some positives today. Let’s work really hard this winter to improve our performance and be fighting for the positions we want. Time to rest and train well 😈🦾 pic.twitter.com/uY6w6nKlkW
— Fabio Quartararo (@FabioQ20) November 19, 2024
We have been saying for months that Yamaha and especially Fabio Quartararo were taking steps in the right direction. Each weekend they have been a little more competitive than the previous one and now in the tests Fabio has been second, which is very good, but Álex Rins has been eighth, which is even better because it suggests that the path chosen is reasonably right.
Likewise, you don’t have to throw your hat in the ring, especially when the two Primac Yamahas are in the back, but you have to understand that both Miller, Oliveira and the team itself have to become familiar with the M1. As we said, one-lap results are not important, but Fabio also maintained a certain consistency and his fastest lap came in the middle of a run, so those flashes seem to be of quality.
Honda: blind trust in Zarco and Aleix
When finding the limit goes wrong but somehow right 😅
Rookie @somkiat35 you’ve gone down at T10 💥#BarcelonaTest pic.twitter.com/NPjRxLCr21
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 19, 2024
Honda has to turn the situation around just as it is happening with Yamaha and in the same way they are doing everything possible. Throughout the year they have been evolving and working on the bike so, in reality, there was not a 2025 bike to test in these preseason tests, but there were different options, configurations…
The most important thing in terms of news came from the hand of Aleix Espargaró and the sensations that Honda has seem to be good with the Granollers rider. He comes from being competitive in Aprilia, and has been the brand’s second fastest rider after Zarco who little by little has been progressing and becoming more competitive. We will have to see in the coming months how things evolve, but without having all the data and knowing the work that each person has done during the test, it cannot be judged reliably. But that does not mean that it is not surprising that a newcomer is faster than the two drivers of the official team.
Now the ball is in the courts of each and every one of the factories, which will have to do their homework with the conclusions. Perhaps that is the most difficult of all, analyzing the data, separating the dust from the chaff and not missing the mark to arrive at the first Grand Prix at the end of February in Thailand with our homework done. The countdown has begun and in just over three months the red lights will go out.
