Whispers emerge from the paddock about what each MotoGP team is testing at Misano

Details about what each MotoGP team is testing at Misano on Monday following the San Marino Grand Prix have started to emerge.

The MotoGP paddock is sticking around at Misano for an extended stay, with the next round of the 2024 season also taking place at the Italian venue following the cancellation of the Kazakhstan GP.

But before that, there is a very important day of testing happening on Monday.

For some teams it will be a chance to evaluate initial 2025 prototypes, while others will simply have a few new items to try.

Here’s what we know so far.

Ducati

Ducati appears to be the manufacturer doing the least amount of development work at Misano on Monday.

Davide Tardozzi was reported by es.motorsport.com as saying that the GP25 “doesn’t exist” yet, which tallies with the fact that the bikes being run today are almost identical to what finished the grand prix on Sunday.

That’s not to say they aren’t trying anything new. MotoGP.com pitlane reported Simon Crafar is convinced Ducati will have to test a 2025-spec engine today and Francesco Bagnaia has a new chassis to work with.

Marc Marquez told the media on Sunday after his grand prix win that he won’t have anything new to test on his Gresini Ducati other than some set-ups. However, he may well get a spin on the 2025 chassis given Ducati will need his feedback on it ahead of next year.

Pramac is trialling a slightly revised aerodynamic set-up on the bottom of its fairing, though it’s a tweak it has tried before.

Crafar said: “They aren’t very different at all. But they are testing a different down-draft at the bottom of the fairing.

“I saw it at Silverstone - sometimes with tricky conditions at Silverstone, they put it to the side, but it’s back now. It’s really easy to miss but I was lucky enough to look inside. The holes inside are a different shape. It’s a tweak.”

Given he is departing for Aprilia at the end of the year, Jorge Martin noted that “I don’t think I will have any new parts - just trying to improve some parts of riding, like the time attack. I will take my time to improve.”

Team-mate Franco Morbidelli is trying some new ideas to “improve feeling” on the GP24. Fabio Di Giannantonio is absent for VR46 as he prioritises his recovery from a shoulder dislocation in Austria.

Yamaha

Because it has concessions, Yamaha has already carried out a lot of testing with its riders this year.

Therefore, it has nothing new to try at Misano and is simply comparing all of the various old and new items it has already been testing. 

Chief among these will be different engine specifications. Yamaha has already brought engine updates to races this year, but there was a third spec that was the preferred one that will be getting more miles.

At the San Marino GP weekend, Yamaha raced with a new chassis that brought it a bit of form - with Fabio Quartararo able to qualifying 10th and finish the GP in seventh.

"I had a chat with the team manager Maio Meregalli," Crafar said. 

"I said ‘what is new, I don’t see anything?’ He said ‘it’s because we’ve got the concessions, we have already tried everything’. 

"This test is about confirming what they’ve tried. Back-to-back with the old, good stuff and confirming that it’s better. Before moving onto giving the riders and crew chiefs the freedom to try settings. They haven’t had time to do that, this year. 

"They lost time with wet tests. Also, they had such a big test programme that they couldn’t play with chassis set-up so that’s what they are doing this afternoon."

Aprilia

Most of Aprilia’s testing is focused on Raul Fernandez on Monday, as the Trackhouse rider is the only one of its stable sticking around for 2025.

He is comparing the 2023 and the 2024 machines, according to Crafar, to “find out if the ’23 is better in the areas where they are weak now, trying to find a better combination”.

Fernandez is also testing an underseat diffuser that is “a Formula 1-style aero” update that “puts a lot of downforce on the rear. In the corners it was making it run wide. They are re-testing that,” said Crafar.

Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori is working hard on the 2025 engine, while Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales are testing set-up solutions to improve corner-entry.

“I am struggling to stop the bike,” said Espargaro following a tough San Marino GP for Aprilia.

“A lack of grip. Which is strange because it’s one of the most high-grip tracks of the year. We are struggling. We’re not at the level of our rivals. We have ideas to try, to change the setting for the next round here. I don’t think we have many new parts here, but we’ll see.”

KTM

The Austrian manufacturer has Dani Pedrosa taking over from Pol Espargaro to carry out testing duties today, while Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta are trying the prototype bike Espargaro has been racing recently.

Crafar believes the engine in that bike “is a different firing order” and more towards what Aprilia’s engine is like.

“I am told Dani has given a new engine the thumbs up, the green light,” Crafar said.

“Dani knows what he’s talking about. I’ve heard from KTM people that they made mistakes in following what they thought was right, and not following Dani’s advice.

“He’s not on the new engine which means there are only a couple, which means they’ve gone to the 2025 riders, Acosta and Binder. They need to give it the green light, or not, so KTM know what to produce for next year.”

Binder said: “From what I understand, Pol Espargaro is on quite a different package.

“Priority #1 is to try that, test that, see what my first impression is of the package that Pol has been working on.

“Secondly, it would be great if we can improve, and find things that help us to improve right now. It’s a long season. Anything we can find to help us this season would be much appreciated.”

Because they are both leaving, Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez have one bike to share to test some settings for this year.

Honda

HRC has brought a raft of updates to the Misano test to try, including new aero, chassis and engine specs for its riders to evaluate.

Johann Zarco said on Sunday that the current 2024 bike “doesn’t work at all”, so what is tested on Monday will be quite important for 2025.

The LCR rider has been trying a new ground effect fairing similar to what the likes of Ducati and Aprilia have been racing.

Both factory Honda riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini took to the track on Monday after missing the grand prix due to illness. They both struggled physically but knew how important this test is.

“There are many other things that we need to improve, like some stiffness of the chassis,” Takaaki Nakagami said about what Honda is looking to do at the test. “We are missing a lot. So we will try to improve the performance of the bike.”