© 2024, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. By Michael Goggis.
Alex Marquez was fastest in the post-season MotoGP test at the Section de Barcelona-Catalonia. The Gresini Racing team got their hands on the Ducati GP24 that took Jorge Martin to the championship this year and Marquez adapted quickly. He briefly experimented with the GP23 he raced this season, and quickly learned that the GP24 had a much easier time extracting the maximum performance from Michael’s tires this season. “This bike is built around these tires,” he said at the end of the day.
Fabio Quatararo is second after testing a new chassis and a new engine. Quattararo says the new chassis settles in better on the brakes, but the bike should now ride better out of corners. “The improvements will not be done overnight,” he said, but the army of engineers from Japan and Italy in the factory garage is happy. The factory team alone had six bikes to test between Quattararo and Rinne and the Pramac Racing team had two bikes each for Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira.
Two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia was third and said the new Ducati GP25 was better in fast corners and stronger in the engine department, but 11 wins in the championship in 2024 lacked braking compared to the GP24. However, he is happy to say that the bike is very good for this stage of development.
Marc Marquez spent a lot of time on the Ducati GP24 and will instead jump straight into the development process of the factory GP25 to race next season. He said the handling of the 2025 model is different but not better or worse than the 2023 machine, but the engine is stronger.
2024 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Martin was unable to speak to the media after the test because he is still under contract with Ducati. Martin took the Progress Aprilia RS-GP to 11th after a minor crash midway through the day.
Pedro Acosta tested many different aerodynamic devices in search of a way forward for KTM. Note that this configuration does not use the tubes on the lower front fairing that the RC16 previously used. Acosta said the final configuration made the bike more stable, because in 2024 it “goes crazy” and shakes the handlebars. In the year The only starter on the grid in 2024, Acosta fully understood why all three 2025 starters crashed within a few laps, and said it was normal when switching from Pirellis Moto2 to MotoGP to Michelin.
