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| Yamaha at their traditional team intro event. On the far left, you'll see a new face in the form of former World Superbike Championship rider, Loris Baz. |
While for us mere mortals, that seems like a nice long holiday. But, for the likes of Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso, it must have been an agonising wait. To be able to jump on the back of their beloved MotoGP machines must feel like a huge relief.
And that was the general feeling we got from the riders at the Sepang International Circuit with the commencement of the first of the 2015 pre-season tests recently from 4 to 6 February.
While it’s probably fair to point out that while a 3-month break does seem like a long time, both the riders and teams have not exactly been idle. Quite a significant amount of work takes place in the off-season, especially after the Valencia tests. The data collected throughout the season and from the post-season test goes some way towards the teams’ development work at the factory.
By the time the teams arrived in Sepang, the 2015 race machineries are nearing the tail end of the development phase, with the first pre-season tests being an important litmus test to see if everyone is on the right track. Every single team on the grid has a different test programme, with varying points of focus. So for the likes of us observers, it’s very hard to judge and predict who the frontrunners are or will be. It wouldn’t be fair either.
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Marc Marquez (top left) is almost always surrounded by journalists and fans.. Dani Pedrosa
(bottom left) obliges the journalists.. and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) taking time out to talk to journalists after his day out in the Sepang sauna. |
Nevertheless, the times do become a point of reference for us observers, as are the number of laps that each rider completes per session. It provides us an inkling (accurate or otherwise) of what the teams might be working to improve on.
These tests days are very different to the race weekends, with engineers scuttling back and forth from the pitwall to the garage to the team offices. The atmosphere is while a bit more laid back compared to a race weekend, there is a very different level of intensity. There is a different type of time pressure, as teams race against the clock to get the bikes race-ready ahead of the season opener in Qatar.
In addition to familiarising ourselves with the new 2015 grid line up, we got to spend three days out in the Sepang sauna to see what some of teams were working on for 2015.
Rise of the Red Dukes, Red Hot Rossi or Magic Marc?
Speaking to the riders at Ducati, it was interesting to note that they came to Sepang working on their GP14.3 bike, an upgrade from the GP14.2 bike that was used at the Valencia post-season tests last year.
As Andrea Dovizioso puts it, “the bike is the same as last year's (November) bike with differences on the engine and updates after the Valencia test. For us the focus was work on the tyres and set-up configurations for the chassis and electronics.” It’s probably worth noting that the Ducati’s were starting to get stronger towards the end of the 2014 MotoGP season, and the team were carrying that momentum into their off-season work to prepare for 2015.
With the new addition of Italian Andrea Iannone to the Ducati line-up for 2015, both Dovizioso and Iannone were able to do a combined total of 288 laps over the three days of testing. Both riders were able to record quick lap times at the 2:00 minute mark over the first two days of testing. With track temperatures considerably cooler on Friday morning, both Ducati riders were able to clock their fastest laps well under the 2:00 minute mark (Andrea Iannone 1:59.388 and Andrea Dovizioso 1:59.874) before starting on their race simulation runs.
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| Both Yamaha riders looked far more relaxed and comfortable with their bikes |
With the addition of his yellow snow-flake inspired helmet design to add to his brightly coloured ensemble, the Italian was pretty quick off the mark on the first day of testing battling teammate Jorge Lorenzo, Ducati’s (Andrea) Dovizioso and Honda’s (Marc) Marquez and (Dani) Pedrosa. Speaking to him at the end of the first day of testing, he was especially happy with the Yamaha’s progress being 0.9seconds faster than his fastest pre-season test time from the same time last year.
He even took the time to joke with us, “It’s always a big emotion coming back on the bike after three months. Because you always get this feeling you forget the way to ride!”
Then he went on to explain, “it’s good because I was competitive from the beginning to the end. I did a good lap time with the new tyre, but also with the old tyres my pace was very similar to Marquez and Lorenzo and also Pedrosa. But anyway, we are there and this is important. I am happy especially because the bike is good, first impression is so positive, the bike works really well. You can push when you ride and it looks like the bike is a little bit faster. We have a lot of small details to work on and its always a pleasure to come back and understand that we are competitive.”
And in typical Rossi fashion, when asked about whether he was happy with Yamaha’s progress on the seamless gearbox everyone was talking about or on the upgrades, he would say, “piano, piano!” i.e., “slowly, slowly!” indicating to not rush these things and that it would be better to have something that works rather than rush to have something that doesn’t.
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| Despite being utterly exhausted, Lorenzo still indulged the journos |
As Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Factory Racing put it to us, Yamaha were coming into these tests on the back of a strong momentum that they were able to build on in the latter stages of the 2014 season. And, being that much closer to the front of the field means that the development of the YZR-M1 bike is headed in the right direction.
Between Rossi and Lorenzo, the Yamaha Factory team were able to clock a total of 335 laps in the three days of testing. Like the Ducati’s, the Yamaha riders also took advantage of the cooler temperatures on Friday to both clock their fastest lap times - Rossi at 1:59.401 and Lorenzo at 1:59.624. Yamaha also ran their long race-simulation programmes on Friday.
The spotlight has very much been on the Repsol Honda’s, particularly these past few years. With reigning double-world Champion Marc Marquez on hand, everyone had their eyes on what the Hondas might be working on to make what had already been labelled a “really fast machine” even better and faster. But, just like everyone else, they too had their own specific test programme.
Honda came to Sepang with a catalogue of bikes to test. They had 2014 machines to use for comparative data and 2015 prototypes for development work as well as one Marc Marquez describes as a “compromise between Valencia and last year’s bike". What’s interesting to note was what Marc Marquez was already able to achieve on day 1 of testing - being two hundredth of a second faster than his fastest lap on day 1 of testing last year.
The 2014 champ had this to say, “It was difficult after the holidays to come here and test three different bikes! There is still a lot of things we need to improve.” Commenting on the bike Marquez eventually chose to work with at the test, “When I tried the bike in Valencia, what I liked about the bike was the front confidence, but we lose a lot in the braking point. So, I asked Honda to keep the same braking point. They did a great job, but we also lose the confidence in the front, but not as much, so we were able to find a good compromise.”
It was a similar story with teammate Dani Pedrosa, hinting at the strong potential in the development on the 2015 Hondas. The Spaniard went on to note that the test was focused on set-up parameters to make the 2015 bikes more comfortable for the riders. Like the other teams, Honda too ran their race simulation programmes.
By the end of the first pre-season tests, Marquez and Pedrosa were able to put in a total of 318 laps between them with Friday morning being their quickest. Now, it’s important to note that timing is not everything at these tests, but it was hard to ignore Marc Marquez’s hot lap on Friday morning.
As Jorge Lorenzo puts it, “Marquez is explosively quick on one quick lap!”. Marc Marquez was explosive with his 1:58.867 hot lap, literally obliterating the circuit lap record. But, it was an abnormally cooler morning, considering that seven other riders were able to clock their fastest laps in the 1:59’s.
Fitness Litmus
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| Andrea Iannone (left) joins Andrea Dovizioso at Ducati this year, while Aleix Espargaro (right) joins Suzuki on their return to MotoGP in 2015 (Aleix did say he was tired, as demonstrated by that look on his face). |
The race simulations are also an important indicator for the riders in testing their fitness levels.
Now it is no secret that all the riders engage in an incredibly enormous amount of training in the off-season. But there was something different about the Spaniard, Jorge Lorenzo.
The Jorge Lorenzo that turned up in Sepang last week really does look leaner and that little bit tougher. He explained that he is now working with a new trainer, with a new nutrition programme and fitness regiment designed to bring his weight back down to when he first made the move to MotoGP in 2008. As a result, he had shed three kilogrammes in the off-season and that he was feeling really good.
It is physically tough being a MotoGP rider, as one rider put it to us, “it’s very physically demanding! Especially here in Sepang. You have to be at the very peak of your fitness to be able to not just ride but produce a consistent performance in these incredibly hot and humid conditions. We have to train that much harder.” And to test your fitness at one of the hottest and most physically challenging circuits of them all, it could not get more difficult than that. Believe us when we say that we saw our fair share of riders leaving the circuit on day 3 looking like they needed at least a week’s worth of massage and double that amount of sleep. Well, perhaps that would be what us mere mortals would think!
The MotoGP teams and riders head for a short break before returning to the Sepang International Circuit from 23 to 26 February for the second pre-season tests. The 2015 MotoGP season kicks off with the Grand Prix of Qatar on March 29.
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