The words of the world champion after the first day of testing
March 11, 2023
First time and smile on the face for I’m sorry Bagnaia.
On the first day of testing in general he said…
“I’m happy, we had a good day and I’m satisfied with everything. We improved a package that was already working well here. Tomorrow we have to close all the tests and see that everything works 100% and if we have time, we can concentrate on the race weekend”
Are you in great shape?
“Yes come on, I’m happy because today we managed to do a lot of laps on the race tires and I also tried a time attack at the end, everything went smoothly. I was already very happy in Malaysia and here we started at a very high level. and so I’m happy”
Is the bike very different from last year?
“Yes, a bit, there are different things, it’s not similar, but working like we did in Malaysia, we found the solution, we started here and I immediately felt good. We may have a little less top speed but we manage to ride very very well which is the most important thing”
Have all the choices been made?
“The bike is 90% consolidated”
Is this bike already better than the old one?
“So, this is a track that is particularly easy for me. I really like the layout and right now I feel that this bike is working well here, but there are still small things where it’s lagging behind. But in terms of delivery and we’ve already improved on various aspects of the journey. It’s a whole process that’s going in the right direction. We’re close, but we’re there”
Have you and Enea tried the hull without the step, the tank, is it one of those things you have to decide?
“I have quite clear ideas, but it’s only fair to try it again because it does different things on this track compared to Malaysia. Here it’s a little closer to our sub-standard belly, but I still feel I prefer the standard”
Tomorrow?
“Today we did a great job on the whole plan, tomorrow we have to do a couple of tests but mainly we will focus on the Sprint race and the race weekend”
Ducati and Aprilia in front of everyone?
“At the moment it seems so, even more than Malaysia. But you know, it’s very difficult to say in tests. Let’s say that we always go very fast with new or used tyres, with the average I did the best time compared to the track record in the race, we are at a high level but it’s hard to say because I don’t know what other people felt”
