Honda, Yamaha and Ducati will have a slight advantage over Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia on the first day of the MotoGP tests. The two Japanese brands and that of Borgo Panigale were able to draw on the data collected by their respective Superbike facilities, which made their debut in Mandalika last November.
Even if Superbikes and MotoGP bikes have nothing in common, there are some parameters that are worth consulting, especially when it comes to setting the first gear ratio that will be used tomorrow, when the MotoGP riders will tackle this track for the first time. time.
“On top of that,” a Ducati source told Motorsport.com, “the teams also evaluate the lap time differences between Superbike and MotoGP on other circuits. So we can approximate what we think the times will be. on the ride here “.
All three teams consulted by the writer of this article speak of a gap that will be around two seconds this weekend. So, if Toprak Razgatlioglu’s best lap in the SBK round, a 1’32 “8 achieved during Superpole, the fastest MotoGP riders should lap in about a minute and a half.
“Honda is lucky to have a Superbike team, so we can have ideas. It’s not that it’s a huge advantage, because the bike is different and so is the way you tackle the corners. But it can serve as a guide,” he said. explained Santi Hernandez, track engineer of Marc Marquez.
“What I did was watch a lot of videos from the Superbike race,” added Pol Espargaro. “We,” said Frankie Carchedi, Joan Mir’s technical manager at Suzuki, “will have to start from scratch. This means that we will have a little more work to do, but we will soon catch up.”
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