In customary MotoGP fashion, the post-season-finale test - this time at replacement venue Barcelona - has marked the semi-official start of the 2025 season.
Marc Marquez's debut in factory Ducati colours was the headline item, but there was plenty that was new - and plenty of curiosities - up and down the grid, with every rider switching teams permitted to make an early debut.
And while the laptime table at the end of the seven-hour test painted a picture, it was inevitably incomplete and perhaps quite deceptive. So here are the takeaways beyond the headline times.
The new Ducati is well-born...
Tech chief Gigi Dall'Igna has suggested Ducati has taken a relatively conservative approach to its newest prototype - relative to the previous year's big step that set up the GP24’s domination - because huge gains only come with big risks and there's no need for those right now.
On evidence of the running and the feedback from new works team-mates Pecco Bagnaia and Marquez, the new package is already competitive.
"Luckily me and Marc had the same feeling about the bike, and this is very important to go in the same direction on the developing," said Bagnaia.
"In terms of handling, the GP24 in braking is still better. I improved a lot this year on the GP24 in terms of braking. So, I think we will have to search to go in the same direction.
“But the GP25 has very good stability in terms of fast corners and I like it also with used tyres. This is good.
"Also the new engine is very strong."
Bagnaia acknowledged that, had there been a race tomorrow, he'd rather race the GP24 rather than the GP25 right now - but that's normal when comparing a brand new package to one refined all season.
...but the year-olds should have a chance
Ducati tester Michele Pirro ran in relief of the injured Fabio Di Giannantonio on VR46’s GP23 in the race weekend then got its new GP25 at the test.
He fully came around by the end of the weekend to the thinking that the GP24 was a huge step forward compared to the GP23, whereas the GP25 is currently only there or thereabouts with the GP24 - some strengths, some weaknesses.
More mileage with it will mean more strengths and fewer weaknesses, but for now those on year-old Ducatis have reason for optimism - perhaps none more so than Alex Marquez, who was conspicuously fast in the test.
"The first run with the '24, I was feeling quite strange, quite different. But the laptime was already the same one, with used tyres. That was a good thing," he said.
"Later on, as I was trying to push more, more and more, it was every time better and better.
“Here today the main difference I felt was that [corner] entry, where we were suffering a lot with the '23. So especially the entry is quite a good step - it's a bike made for this rear tyre."
Asked by The Race if he could've replicated his test-topping effort on the GP23, he said: "I mean, in quali I did a 1m38.9s but they cancelled my laptime, I touched slightly a little bit the green [paint denoting track limits].
"The track level, for some reason, today it was more difficult to understand the grip. It was not really equal for all the track.
"It's normal also that I was in the 1m38s. They give you a bike that's already done, so you don't need to try nothing. It's normal that we are faster, we didn't have a lot of work to do."
Nobody else was in the 1m38s, though - and you have to imagine that there will be tracks (*cough* Sepang *cough*) in 2025 where the younger Marquez can put up a real fight, instead of just scrapping for best of the rest.
Marquez is firmly back in factory mode
While his younger brother was able to enjoy that bike that was “already done”, Marc Marquez was straight back into a factory team workload as he made his debut in (extremely) red.
“I was working a lot for the engineers, because when you jump to the official team it means you have a very strict plan with all the things you need to try and the rider is in the hands of the engineers,” he said.
Though he had two brief runs on the GP24 that’s been his nemesis all year while doing his utmost with Gresini’s GP23, Marquez declined to comment on how big the difference between those two bikes had been.
But he backed Bagnaia’s assessment of engine performance and corner entry being the immediate gains with the GP25.
At this test last year, Marquez’s very obvious feeling having swapped the Honda for a Ducati was relief and optimism.
This time he was clearly getting straight down to business, though it was also clear that he was having a lot of fun working with new bosses Davide Tardozzi and Gigi Dall’Igna, who he underlined he’d always had a “very good and polite relationship” with even when Ducati was his main title rival during his later Honda championship campaigns.
Asked if it felt strange to suddenly be on the red bikes he’d spent so much of his MotoGP career fighting to beat, Marquez replied: “No, no, no, it was a pleasure. When you arrive in the team that performs in a better way in the last year, you have the responsibility to be fast because you’re in the best team on the grid.
“It was a pleasure to be inside that garage.”
The vibes are weird at Honda
Joan Mir rocked up to his debrief with a face that could only mean one of two things: extreme fatigue or extreme disappointment.
When The Race asked him which it was, he made it clear.
"Not very happy. Not very happy,” he replied. "It wasn't a productive day. That's it. Everything we tried, we have tried before.
“We didn't have anything new - any new upgrades that allowed us to be faster. We were working with our standard package, and [also] with a package that in the past wasn't working.
“So you can imagine that the day was not the day that I expected."
Mir said the upgrades will instead be available in the upcoming private test at Jerez Honda will carry out before the shakedown.
Team-mate Luca Marini corroborated this - yet felt the Barcelona offering was already considerable ahead of an even "more interesting" Jerez package.
"On my side I had quite many things to try, sincerely,” he insisted.
“I also expected to not have many things to try, because this was the plan - but finally there were quite a lot of things. A new prototype bike that for sure will be the base for the Sepang test [early next year].
“Obviously still not as fast as the standard bike that we had during the weekend - but something positive we did find.”
"We got something new, a new bike," said LCR Honda rider Johann Zarco, the fastest of the manufacturer's representatives in 2024.
"But it was not positive. So - it's an information, to maybe not go in this direction in February."
Espargaro can bolster his legacy after retiring
There was one unquestionable positive for Honda, though - the out-of-the-blocks performance of new test rider Aleix Espargaro, immediately competitive with the Honda regulars.
"For me it was fantastic that Aleix was able to try the bike the first time here in Barcelona - because it's maybe his best track, no? He's super fast here, he achieved great results with Aprilia," said Marini.
"I just had a little talk with him during the test, I still need to talk with him deeper, but the laptime was good, his impressions are telling us something... and in my opinion he just needs a little more experience on this bike, because it's quite different compared to the others. But he will find a way to help us. Fantastic."
Two movers feel vindicated
We didn't hear from newly-crowned champion Jorge Martin - who, despite a crash, seemed to have a pretty solid first day on the Aprilia - and we didn't hear from his new team-mate Marco Bezzecchi either.
But two of their fellow bike-swappers - conspicuous in popping up higher on the timesheets that one might expect during their first tests with their new employers - did speak, and were pretty clearly satisfied.
KTM's new signing Maverick Vinales found everything he had hoped for on his first day at satellite team Tech3 - an environment he enjoys, an engine that places his name at the top of the speed trap rankings, a bike that starts well, a bike that feels right.
"Straight away, even on the outlap, the feelings were positive. Everything came very naturally," he said.
The laptimes through the day seemed to bear that out, even if he just missed out on a top 10 spot at the end.
And over at Yamaha's new satellite team Pramac, Miguel Oliveira seemed to have a step on fellow newcomer Jack Miller. Miller, still under contract at KTM, didn't speak to the media - so we don't know how he feels about his first introduction to the Yamaha - but how Oliveira feels about his is pretty clear.
"It was very, very different from what I was used to, for sure, especially in the braking phase. It's super different," he said.
"But I have to say it's also a bike that's straight away rider-friendly.
“It's easy, the bike gives you good feedback to tell you where the wheels are. And that's super important."
His answer as to what he didn't like was a telling one, too.
"Well, I'm not a big fan of the black colours, so probably that! But for the rest everything is fantastic I have to say."
Martin's crash was a good sign
While Martin was not allowed to speak about the Aprilia yet - as is standard for most riders at this test when swapping manufacturers - his new technical boss Fabiano Sterlacchini did come to answer media questions.
But with KTM convert Sterlacchini still getting to know the RS-GP too, he kept his responses about his and Martin’s initial findings very broad and cautious.
That shouldn’t be taken as a sign that either is disappointed, though.
While there may have been an element of post-title-win happy hangover for Martin, all the hints from his body language on and off the bike were that he wasn’t getting any bad surprises from the Aprilia as he tried a variety of aero packages.
Though he crashed it at Turn 5, it felt like the kind of crash you have when you feel confident enough to start pushing the limit and just go over it a bit - rather than the kind of crash you have when the bike does something completely counterintuitive that you hate.
Some high-profile rider/manufacturers tie-ups have immediately looked pretty doomed from the vibe at this first test. Martin + Aprilia certainly does not.
Di Giannantonio's recovery is on schedule
The only other rider besides Bagnaia and the elder Marquez who will have a latest-spec Ducati at his disposal in races next year, VR46 rider Di Giannantonio had to curtail his 2024 campaign to make sure a necessary shoulder surgery doesn't impact his 2025.
He went under the knife during the Sepang weekend earlier this month, and showed up at Barcelona with his arm in a sling, presumably to avoid any unnecessary shoulder ligament mobility.
"I'm good!" he said in an exceedingly jovial media session. "These days I'm much, much better compared to last week.
“The first days were quite tough, it was impossible to sleep, the pain was on a high level. But now I'm really good, the medical staff are all impressed by the improvements I'm making. Day by day I'm improving a lot.
"At the moment the plan is for sure to make the first official test at Sepang - but we will not be at 100%, physically.
“Because, if you saw me naked at the moment, for sure it wouldn't be a big show! You'd see that I lost a lot of muscles - to rebuild those muscles, that energy, that stamina will take a lot of time."
