Pecco Bagnaia arrived at Sepang as world champion, so the first day of the MotoGP collective tests also represented his first outing with the number 1 on the windshield. The Ducati rider set the fifth fastest time of the day, not too far from the performance obtained by Marco Bezzecchi astride a Desmosedici GP22, but for the moment he is being very cautious with his judgments on the potential of the GP23.
Without exaggerating, he lapped in 1’58″857, but the memory of last year’s difficult winter, which put his season uphill from the very first outings, is clear in his mind. So, the key word of these first three days in Malaysia is understanding, starting with the juicier news that differentiates the 2023 bike from the one with which he won the world title.
“Today I was focused on the new engine and the fairing, because they’re the biggest things to test. I’m very happy with the work we’ve done: this morning I set the time with the new bike, then in the afternoon we did some comparisons with used tires to understand what level we are at,” explained the world champion at the end of the day.
“The old bike is a 2020 bike that has now reached the peak of its evolution. The new one has great positive things, but in acceleration it’s still a little too aggressive, also because the previous one was very smooth. Now we’re concentrated on trying to understand what we have to do to take advantage of it, even in terms of riding, because it’s different. However, my approach today was precisely this: understand and try to adapt to the bike. I have to move more on the bike, because the delivery is different , but I think we’ve already improved on that throughout the day,” he added.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Once given this first impression on the new engine, which was precisely one of the most complicated elements to manage in 2022, when he then approved a “hybrid” version that had parts of the previous one, he gave some indication of the new aerodynamics tested today. An evolution of the step concept introduced by Aprilia last year.
“Even with the fairing I think a great job has been done. It is totally different and therefore also has a different effect and requires something different also in terms of driving. It is better in braking, and this is a positive thing with the Ducati, but in the long corners you have to stay a little longer on the bike and lean less. I still have to understand it well, but it’s good to try it here, because this track has so many long corners. I think it has great potential, but tomorrow I have to try to improve thanks to the things I learned today.”
“At the moment, however, there are more positive aspects than negative ones, so we can be satisfied with this first day. We have two more days to try and understand everyone, but compared to last year we can be very happy with how we are after a day,” he continued.
When he was then asked to make a comparison with the first tests of last season, he had no doubts in indicating this first day as more promising than that of 12 months ago. With the awareness, however, that a single day’s work is not enough to draw conclusions.
“I think this year we got off to a much better start, because the feeling is much better and the times confirm it too. Last year I finished the first day in 2’00″0 doing the time attack. Today I was faster and faster and I’m happy, but like everyone we have a lot of work to do. I’m happy, but I don’t want to draw too many positive conclusions, I prefer to stay calm, “she concluded.
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Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
