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Honda test rider and regular Marc Marquez replacement Stefan Bradl says that MotoGP’s testing structure needs to change now that the series has altered the weekend format, with the added intensity of sprint races and the reduced amount of development work that teams can do in private conspiring to limit the chance for manufacturers like Honda to catch up.
The introduction of sprint races at every single round of the 21-round MotoGP calendar for 2023 has come with a dramatic change to the overall weekend format, with Friday’s two timed practice sessions now morphing from a genuine opportunity to work on testing new parts into a frantic unofficial qualifying segment.
Many riders now view grid position as the single most important metric for success in MotoGP as aerodynamic rules, front tyre pressure issues, and the shortened nature of Saturday sprints all limit their ability to make forward progress if needed in race trim. This means that the opportunity to secure a direct path to Q2 is the biggest priority of the weekend’s opening day – as ending up in Q1 is not only an added stress and risk but also is costly in terms of tyres.
It is therefore crucial now to have a machine not just fast for a full race distance but with even stronger one-lap time attack speed – and Bradl says the current rules are unsuited for developing that particular area.
The long-serving Honda tester is able (like the series’ four other factories) to use only 120 sets of Michelin tyres in private testing, and believes this is out of sync with MotoGP’s current reality.
“The whole weekend isn’t really what we’re doing in the testing program,” he told the media at the Circuit of the Americas.
“We’re testing with fresh tyres, but we’re not really taking a lot of time for a time attack. The whole weekend now in a GP, you’re attacking for a time all the time. You’re basically always on fresh tyres.
“Then in a test programme you go much more with used tyres, and the whole bike changes when you put in fresh tyres and go for it. That’s the limitation of the quantity of tyres that we can use for the whole season for the team.”
Honda had started the current MotoGP season in deep crisis, and Alex Rins’ feel-good victory for LCR at COTA is scant evidence that it’s recovered, given both the particularities of the track and Rins’ affinity for it. And Bradl, who has been reliably frank about Honda’s shortcomings albeit did in this case speak before Rins’ breakthrough, believes a rule change is needed for his test team to make meaningful gains.
“It’s limiting us to follow where the GP weekend is going,” the 33-year-old stressed. “The test programme is going the other way, and it’s hard for us to speak about Honda when we’re at the back. We want to catch up, but the regulations are limiting us.
“The rules have changed, and I think they need to do something else to help.
“Concession points? Who has them now? No one?
“But we all have the same limitations with the tyre rules, and at the end of the day I am a test rider. I’m not complaining, but this is my personal opinion.
“Us, in my test team, we are struggling, and how to make progress? Good question, I don’t know.”
