One big problem for each MotoGP manufacturer to fix after 2025 preseason testing

MotoGP testing is over for another year, and all five manufacturers have reasons to be positive, but also areas to improve. 

Here are our key issues that each manufacturer has to face after five days of official testing, and with two weeks until the first race in Thailand.

Ducati - Launching perfection

Ducati’s problems are all luxuries in MotoGP at the moment.

They have to manage the balance between arguably the two best riders in the world at the moment; their biggest competitors are often riders on their own machinery but not in factory colours; and they have to try to make a bike better than the best bike in history.

That might be over-playing the GP24 slightly, but winning 16 races from 20 last year proves that the ‘old’ Desmosedici is at least one of the best bikes to have been rolled onto a Grand Prix grid.

That, of course, presents the question at the end of the year of: how to improve it?

The answer, it has turned out, is that that might be more complicated than even the engineers at Borgo Panigale could manage. The result of that is that Ducati’s factory riders - Francesco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez, and Fabio Di Giannantonio - will line-up in Thailand in a couple of weeks with a 2024 engine, 2024 chassis, and 2024 aerodynamics.

There are some small updates, but the big pieces of what seemed to be the GP25 will not be raced this year, at least in the first races, or at all in the case of the engine.

Of course, having the Desmosedici GP24 to fall back on proves Ducati’s strength, rather than its weakness, because the only reason it was able to fall back on it at all was because of how good it was – and is.

However, there is still a problem: starts.

They were not great in the second half of last year on occasions for both Bagnaia and 2024 champion Jorge Martin, and things don’t seem to have been perfectly dialled in yet for 2025, either.

This could be down to the hybrid bike Ducati is running, with a mostly-2024 base with small 2025 additions. This could mean that things still need properly calibrating between engine, clutch, electronics, and rider to get consistently good launches.

But, if the only problem is the starts, it’s not a disaster, even in the modern age of MotoGP.

Aprilia - Overcoming injuries

Aprilia’s MotoGP preseason got off to a poor start when Jorge Martin and Raul Fernandez – Aprilia’s two most valuable development assets this year thanks to the former’s riding ability, speed, and experience, and the latter’s experience of the RS-GP – both injured themselves on the opening day of the Sepang test.

Fernandez was able to return for the Buriram test, but Martin was forced to skip it, meaning that much of the development work this winter was done by Marco Bezzecchi.

The nonchalant-appearing Bezzecchi wasn’t exactly fancied as a test rider before this winter but the noises coming out of Aprilia – in particular from people like team manager of the factory squad, Paolo Bonora – suggest that, in fact, he did quite a good job.

More importantly, the suggestions of Aprilia management are backed up by lap times, with Bezzecchi ending the Buriram test third-fastest behind only the Ducatis of Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez.

Whether Bezzecchi will be the person to lead Aprilia also after the return of Martin at the first round remains will only be told with time, and certainly there will be a period of adaptation for Martin that should’ve taken place over the winter.

But Aprilia’s preseason seemed to be lost on the first day, and yet it was rescued by the rider who by the end of 2024 was the focus of speculation over whether he was actually good enough to get the factory ride in the first place.

KTM - Vibrations remain

If Ducati is entering 2025 with more or less the same package as it ended 2024 with, KTM is coming into the new season with the same problems as last year.

Vibration was often cited by many of KTM’s riders last year as one of the RC16’s most limiting factors, and it has so far remained uncured in 2025.

Of course, rear vibration is not the biggest concern of KTM as a whole at the present moment, but if it persists – or if the Mattighofen marque is unable to find another way to find more speed and challenge the Ducatis – the problem of how to keep Pedro Acosta (who was the fastest KTM rider in Buriram by 0.6 seconds) on its books is only just over the horizon.

Yamaha - No grip, no hope?

The most striking manufacturer in all of testing was clearly Yamaha, having been so competitive in Sepang that Francesco Bagnaia and Davide Tardozzi both suggested the Iwata marque could be the Bologna brand’s closest challenger in 2025.

Buriram, on the other hand, appeared to be something of a reminder of reality in that respect, as Fabio Quartararo – Yamaha’s fastest rider – was almost 0.2 seconds slower than the fastest Honda rider: Joan Mir.

But it remains true that Yamaha has made progress over the winter. Grip issues remain and, until they are treated, the YZR-M1 is likely to remain quite inconsistent, but it finally seems that Yamaha is discovering the performant results of the organisational changes it began implementing in 2023.

Are they going to win the championship? No. Are they going to win a race? That actually seems like a possibility – not in Thailand, but somewhere. Maybe.

Honda - Motor Company

Honda’s story is similar to Yamaha’s for this preseason, as it has seemingly made progress but is still not realistically a podium or victory contender just yet.

Sepang was not so promising for the RC213V riders, but in Thailand – perhaps at least in part thanks to the recent private test conducted in Buriram by Aleix Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami – things looked much better.

Joan Mir was sixth-fastest overall and his best time was over 0.6 seconds faster than his Q2 time of 2024, which was his best time of the weekend on that occasion.

What is now holding Honda back? The engine.

It’s not an original take by now to say, with exclamation, ‘How can it be a reality that Honda Motor Company can’t build a good motor,’ because the engine has been the at the heart of whatever problems the RC213V has had for at least half-a-decade by now, but it is still quite stark that the Honda is slower on the straights than even the Yamaha and its hopeless, unsuitable, multiple-title-winning inline-four.

Power and torque is not the only reason for this, because rear grip is also an issue and therefore so is acceleration.

However, although Honda is likely to remain hamstrung by its straight line performance for a while longer yet, it does seem that many of the other issues with the bike have been improved.

Since the engine is slow and there is no rear grip, this is mostly about the front end of the bike, which now helps the bike to turn better and is giving the riders confidence.

The aforementioned Mir even went as far as to say that he could enjoy riding the bike in Buriram – something that almost certainly hasn’t been true at more than a handful of moments since the 2020 World Champion joined HRC in 2023.

The same rider, though, added that he is “worried” about racing situations because of how slow the bike is.

Perhaps the question moving forwards is: can Honda bring additional power without the price being the handling improvements its made this winter?