MotoGP satellite teams finding success with high-quality ‘hand-me-down’ bikes and attracting envy from the factory riders has been a not-too-uncommon recent trend in the premier class.
Whether it be Johann Zarco’s older-spec Tech3-run Yamahas creating the occasional embarrassment for Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, Franco Morbidelli nearly winning the 2020 title on a 2019 bike, or Takaaki Nakagami often getting more joy from older-spec Hondas than the works Honda riders not named Marc Marquez, you don’t have to go far for examples – but they should be less likely now that so many satellite teams have equipment parity with their factory counterparts.
Yet 2022 has presented the potential for another such scenario to develop at least in the opening grands prix – and the upcoming test at new venue Mandalika that should tell us more about the likelihood of seeing ’21 machinery run riot in race trim.
There are only four clear ‘hand-me-down’ entries on this year’s MotoGP grid. Three of these are for rookie riders, who do not require state-of-the-art machinery, but the fourth is for Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, a rider who would’ve had every right to really press his marque for an up-to-spec Desmosedici on the heels of his thoroughly impressive 2021 season.
Yet the first 2022 test at Sepang last week gave a strong indication that the ’21 bike Bastianini will have this season still qualifies as ‘state-of-the-art’ – and while the 2022 Suzuki GSX-RR, tested so extensively through last year, has been described as the readiest of the crop of new bikes, the readiest bike overall surely belongs to the Gresini man.
“You know, at the first five races we can be competitive like the ’22 bike – after I don’t know,” Bastianini told MotoGP.com after Sepang. “But I want to stay in the top five.”
Bastianini also stated that he expects to benefit from an initial advantage in terms of the available data as the campaign starts, but expects this to come to nought quickly given the “incredible” nous of Ducati tech guru Gigi Dall’Igna.
Given that the factory Ducati riders pretty much all spoke of some minor but existent teething troubles for the newest iteration of the Desmosedici, it’s natural to wonder whether Bastianini will be in a good position through the flyaway starting leg of the season at Qatar, Mandalika, Termas de Rio Hondo and Austin.
Certainly, VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini – who was upgraded from a ’19 Ducati to a latest factory-spec bike for this year – sees that as a real possibility, albeit with his view perhaps influenced by the fact nearly half of his Sepang test was compromised by an unspecified technical issue.
“In my opinion there is a lot of potential, we just have to find it,” Marini said. “The bike is good, like the ’21 was – when I tried the ’21 in Jerez [late last year], with a lot of grip in the track, everything was better. Everything was good. But I don’t think that so much changed [on the] the ’22.
“Here we struggled a little bit more, but I think it’s from the track, the difficult conditions that we have here, that for two years we didn’t come here [to Sepang], you need to work a little bit, also on the electronics side.
“I think that Ducati is doing a fantastic job. We just need time. Maybe in the beginning we are not ready, for sure, but from the sixth or seventh race I think that the ’22 can be strong, stronger than every other manufacturer, I hope.”
Unlike, say, the new-look Honda, the latest iteration of the Desmosedici is not a substantial departure from its predecessor. Along with Marini, virtually every other rider to have sampled both made that clear at Sepang, with Pramac man Zarco saying the Desmosedici GP22 was a “very similar” package with which Ducati “tried to take the same things and push it a bit better”.
“But when you do this, you have to rebuild many things – and when you rebuild, you have to test to really try everything and fix it. Because with new parts there are always things to fix,” Zarco added.
Among the “things to fix” that came up was the matter of “throttle connection from engine brake to, basically, positive gas – that’s been the recurring thing”, according to factory rider Jack Miller.
But there is confidence in both him and team-mate Francesco Bagnaia – as well as the two Pramac riders – that any such electronics-derived problem will not take until Qatar to resolve.
Perhaps more informative is Jorge Martin’s comment that the new bike is “still missing some rear grip”, and his general impression that – despite him being the quickest of the ’22 runners at Sepang – there is still a gap between the 2021 Desmosedici that finished last season and the new GP22s preparing to begin this one.
“For sure I am new to this,” said the Pramac and MotoGP sophomore, “but I can see that when a new bike arrives the level is a bit lower than the last one because the last one for sure is working, we can see Enea, [and] we saw in Valencia we were all on the podium.
“So, the new bike is a bit lower, we are arriving to the normal level, but for sure the potential is higher.”
That last statement, too, seems a universally-held opinion within the Ducati ranks – that the GP22 will be the bike to have over the course of the season, with not even a whisper or a slightest hint of the idea any of the factory-spec riders could be left pining for a downgrade.
Yet, as Marini mentioned above, the GP22’s potential requires time to access, and time is at a premium this off-season. Not only are there only five days of 2022 testing in the lead-up to the campaign, but half of one was effectively rained out at Sepang, and initial weather forecasts for Mandalika suggest some more mileage could fall by the wayside.
And then there’s the factor of Mandalika itself – an all-new track for MotoGP, in lieu of the well-trodden and familiar pre-season venue that was Qatar’s Losail circuit.
The big question, therefore, is how conducive Mandalika will prove for the ’22 Ducatis but also the other ’22 bikes to become better versions of themselves.
In terms of layout, there is little concern – Miller says it shouldn’t take long to learn, and points to the preponderance of reference material from last year’s World Superbike finale at the venue – but the track conditions might be a different matter. And that’s not only because of potential rain, but just the question of how long it will take to create the required grip.
Mind you, does any of that mean Ducati’s expected title contenders are worried? Let’s put it that way – if they are, they’re really good actors, and while Bastianini and Marini speak of a potential initial advantage for the GP21, the heavy-hitters aren’t so sure – and hint the ‘crossover’ in performance should already materialise before Qatar, if it hasn’t already.
“Even if you look back at when I was at Pramac, in the past years, and then Dovi [Andrea Dovizioso] and Danilo [Petrucci], or Dovi and Jorge [Lorenzo], generally most of the time we were able to be faster, especially in the Malaysian test,” Miller said.
“There’s so much more workload to do, being in the factory team, that you don’t get to throw tyres at it, have all that fun that you do in the satellite team, where you can go and break lap records.
“We don’t need to have the best bike in the first test, we need to have the best bike when Qatar rolls around – and I think we’re well on the way there.”
“I think we have time enough to understand how to make the bikes work,” agreed Martin. “Today [on day two at Sepang] we were there already, we just need some days – today was our second time on the bike and we did the same time as the old lap record.
“So, for sure the bike is working, we just need to find this rear grip, and we’ll be ready for Qatar.”
