It has been hot and humid at Motegi. Humid enough to rain in the morning, chasing everyone back into the garage for 20 minutes in FP1. That disrupted everyone’s practice plans, forcing a rethink of the afternoon session and leaving a lot of questions unanswered.
Questions such as, will the soft rear go the distance on Sunday, or should we use the medium? A lot of riders used the medium during the limited running in the morning, but the tire just didn’t want to work for most people in the afternoon. “If you see everyone that put a medium tire in PR, they make 3 laps and come in and put a soft,” Pedro Acosta said. “This is not easy to understand. And even the soft is going to be difficult to finish the race with.”
That puts a lot of pressure on Saturday morning, to work out whether the medium rear is a better tire for the race. “Last season with this tire they made the whole race and they were fast, and it was not an issue,” Acosta said. “But I don’t know why, but this soft tire will not finish the race. But the medium, I don’t know how is the level of grip, you know?”
Not that the riders are going to get a chance to work on Saturday. The forecast is for rain to start overnight and to continue through until the afternoon. Though the forecast keeps changing, at least the very heavy rain seems to have shifted from around the time of the sprint race to qualifying time. Not that that makes things easier.
So it looks like qualifying could be a messy affair, and could even be canceled if the rain is as heavy as some predictions show. If that’s the case, then grid positions will be determined by the results of Friday afternoon’s timed practice session.
That would complicate things for Pecco Bagnaia. The reigning champion had a strong day on Friday, quickly up to pace and finding improvements in braking. “I think we can say that it was a very positive Friday,” the Ducati Lenovo rider said. “We started well this morning. As soon as I start I feel well with my bike and everything we did on the bike was good. We improved my feeling. We improved the braking and I think we can be happy. This afternoon the conditions were much better and we were able to focus even more on the braking and I think our pace was fantastic.”
Bagnaia felt his pace was as good or better than that of Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta. “I think our pace is quite good, maybe the strongest, but it’s too soon to say,” the Italian said. “I think Pedro and Martin are very close to me… No, we are all in the same step. But they are the two fastest, with me.”
Looking at the pace, Martin and Bagnaia look very similar on used tires, with Brad Binder – fastest overall – not far behind. Pedro Acosta’s pace looks a little better, doing a 1’44.666 on a soft rear with 13 laps, where Martin and Bagnaia were doing 1’44.9s on similar tires, and Binder a 1’45.0.
Martin’s pace may look good, but he was far from happy. “Strange feeling,” was how the Pramac Ducati rider described it. “I was quite happy the first run, but then I started to have issues with the bike. I was not having the best feeling. So I think we have still a lot of margin to improve at least the front, and even if the pace wasn’t bad, I’m not really confident with the bike. So hopefully I can make a step for Sunday. I am one of the fastest, but I want to have a better feeling for sure.”
Martin’s biggest problem? “I’m locking a lot the front,” the Spaniard said. “Then when I go in, I start to lose the front a lot. It will be really difficult to make 24 laps like this! So I think I need to improve quite a lot the feeling and then everything will come much easier.”
All eyes may be on Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia because of the championship, but Motegi is allowing the KTM to shine. Brad Binder was fastest, but above all, comfortable, and Pedro Acosta is starting to look like the threat he posed at the start of the season.
“Super happy to be quickest in the PR session today,” Brad Binder said on Friday. He had one small hiccup with vibration in his brakes, but that was soon solved. “As soon as we put the tires in for time attack I felt really, really good and I think our bike is working really well here on new rubber. Let’s work for the race distance tomorrow and we can be strong.”
The layout of Motegi clearly works for the KTM RC16. “Well its clear that this track works well for us, it has last year and previous years before that as well. I plan on taking full advantage,” Binder said.
Pedro Acosta, who appears to have the strongest pace of the day, agreed. “I was feeling quite competitive, even seeing that I was not so far from the top guys in the best lap, let’s say,” the Spanish rookie said. “We need to be a little bit more happy because we are getting closer to them and even a little bit easier to put everything together.”
Where Acosta is making the time is in the fact the bike allows him to ride the front the way he wants to. “It’s super nice when your bike has exactly the same strong point as you have when you are riding,” the GASGAS Tech3 rider explained. “That maybe can be, let’s say, our secret to not having many issues with the front tires.”
The new chassis Acosta started using in Mandalika has helped too, improving rear grip. “It’s true that now we are improving also a lot with the rear traction, and with the turning, and for this it is becoming easier and easier at the moment I see myself in risk, to release the brake and just try to make corner speed. This is why we are getting closer,” he said.
Acosta is using a frame tested by Brad Binder at Misano, KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti told Simon Crafar on the Dorna live broadcast on Friday morning. Binder had not liked the frame, which allowed Acosta to use it. Given the speed of the pair, that choice seems to have worked out well for both of them.
Marc Márquez may be up near the top of the timesheets, sitting in second a numerically pleasing 0.033 seconds behind the #33 of Brad Binder, but the Gresini Ducati rider is far from happy. He is way off the pace, and issues with his bikes in the afternoon left him visibly and vocally agitated in the pits.
Márquez insisted that his agitation should not be interpreted as anger. “Not upset and not angry,” was how he described himself. “I just tried to keep that intensity, because it was a super important practice, because it looks like tomorrow it will be wet, and in wet conditions, I don’t like to be in Q1.”
With rain expected, Márquez was deeply concerned about not getting through to Q2. “I tried to find that intensity, because I had many small problems, but a lot of problems on both bikes, and I knew that it was a super important practice, for that reason we were trying to fix all those problems. We did it, lucky for us, and just it’s true that I was only able to do the last two runs with my normal bike. But enough to be in the Q2.”
It is a strange weekend for Marc Márquez. Every visit he paid to Motegi as a Honda rider was a whirlwind of sponsor and team commitments. But with Gresini Ducati, it’s the complete opposite. “The atmosphere was more strange Wednesday and Thursday than today. In the end on the racetrack, you’re just riding and you don’t think about it. But it’s true that it was different on Wednesday and Thursday, when I was used to have many events, many visits from the big bosses, and this GP is one of the quietest for our team.”
Mixed fortunes at Aprilia, where Maverick Viñales is in the zone where the other Aprilia riders are struggling badly. Viñales’ pace is hard to read, as he swapped between medium and soft rear tires, but the factory Aprilia rider was confident at the end of Friday.
“I’m happy today, to be honest,” Viñales said after practice. “In the last races I have been able to take out the maximum of the bike and even more and go over the limits and today was one of those days that with the riding style I am able to be in a good position and a good lap time. I am quite excited for the next sessions and to be honest I was quite optimistic every session.”
His strong record at Motegi helps, Viñales acknowledged, together with a bike that was working well without excelling anywhere. “I think it is not fantastic in one particular area but it is working correctly in all the aspects, and that is for sure why I am able to ride fast,” Viñales said of his Aprilia RS-GP. “For sure historically here I am really fast but today I could make the difference.”
His teammate is the opposite. “I’m not comfortable,” Aleix Espargaro said. “I’m struggling a lot to stop the bike and making a lot of mistakes. I feel like I am completely over the limit on the front tire.” At Trackhouse, Raul Fernandez complained that he was struggling the way he normally does on Friday, and this gives him a massive disadvantage.
Things are equally bad at Yamaha, but this time for both Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins. The issue is simple: they lack rear grip. The problem is that this affects them not just on corner exit but on every part of the corner, as a frustrated Alex Rins told reporters.
“I was trying to give my 100% and something was not working. Something is wrong,” Rins said. “Both Fabio and myself have similar problems. We cannot find the traction. As soon as we release the brakes and open the throttle we have massive spin, zero edge grip.”
The issue was the same in braking as well, Rins explained. “Then also this track is a really hard braking track, we are having much more problems than we are expecting. With the hard front I just feel like it is too soft for me. Going into the corner the front was moving like hell, plus the rear grip: I am sure for me that more than three seconds around the whole circuit the rear wheel was in the air. This doesn’t help to stop the bike and we need to check why.”
The Hondas, on the other hand, are cautiously upbeat at Motegi. “Again not bad, and we are able to see some improvement from the beginning of the season, if we look from far,” Joan Mir said. The changes made to the bike have made it more competitive, as was plain from the fact that even Takaaki Nakagami was fast now that he has the new aero package the rest of the Honda riders have had since the Misano test. Nakagami was the fastest Honda rider and came within five hundredths of a second of getting straight through to Q2.
There are still significant problems for the Hondas. Everyone appears to be struggling with some form of vibration, with on easy fixes in sight. For Luca Marini, the issues are emanating from the tires, but he has no idea of where it is coming from or how to fix it. “It’s super strange the behavior of the tires here and the tarmac is very unique,” the Repsol Honda rider said. “I never complained so much about the rear grip this year as much as here. So even if we don’t have grip, we have a lot of vibration.”
A new lead
Honda may not have been at the head of the timesheets, but they were at the top of the headlines. On Friday, HRC announced that current Aprilia technical boss Romano Albesiano will be joining Honda as Technical Director. The hiring is an obvious move to try to accelerate their MotoGP project and catch up with their European rivals.
The move is a massive step for Albesiano. He has worked in Italian companies pretty much his entire career, and with Piaggio for nearly 20 years. Before taking over from Gigi Dall’Igna as head of Aprilia’s MotoGP project, he was involved in motorcycle development within Piaggio, working on Aprilias, Moto Guzzis, Derbis and more. How he will fit into the Japanese structure at HRC is an open question. As are the conditions he demanded when he agreed to the move.
Aprilia riders had glowing words for Albesiano. Maverick Viñales admitted he lacked the technical knowledge to be able to judge him, but praised the way he had treated him. “As a person he is calm, methodic and plans well so for sure this was a way that is easier for a rider to work compared to say the extreme changes of every time you go on the track. My era with Romano has been fantastic and with a really positive feeling,” Viñales said.
For Raul Fernandez, who is staying in Aprilia, the move came as something of blow. “It is difficult for me, because I have a really good relationship with Romano,” the Trackhouse Aprilia rider said. “I think he worked really well in Aprilia. He’s one of the people who most improved this project, so for me it’s really disappointing.”
Aleix Espargaro finds himself in a tricky situation, as Albesiano is following the Spaniard to HRC. He rejected any idea that he had tempted the Aprilia boss across to Honda. “No I did not really!” he told reporters, before admitting that he knew that talks had been ongoing for a while. “I knew it, that Honda was interested in Romano, but for me it was a matter of respect against Massimo (Rivola, Aprilia Racing CEO) and against Jorge Martin, because I brought him.
Espargaro has a lot of faith in Albesiano, after working with him for such a long time. “I believe a lot in the talent of Romano. I think with more time and more perspective will give more credit to what Romano and I achieved in Aprilia, sincerely.”
He has seen what Albesiano has been able to do at Aprilia, Espargaro said. “What Romano was able to do these last 6, 7 years in Aprilia has been amazing. Remarkable. We’ve grown these last two or three seasons, but the first ones were very difficult. He never gave up, he had a lot of ideas, he made the bike year by year better.”
To move to HRC was like a gift, a reward for those years of hard work, Espargaro said. It was also a tribute to the improvements Aprilia have made over the past years. “That Honda HRC put the target on Romano, myself as a test rider, my crew chief, one mechanic that’s going to join me also, it means that we did a really good job in Aprilia in the past. So full credit to Aprilia, because we have to be very proud,” the Aprilia veteran said.
For Marc Márquez, who was at the heart of HRC’s development for so long, hiring a European engineer to lead Honda’s MotoGP project was the obvious choice to make. It may seem un-Honda-like, but in fact it fit in exactly with HRC’s objectives. “Sometimes in competition you need to change and you need to adapt to what the situation requests,” Márquez explained. “And now the situation of Honda requests being in the top as fast as possible.”
The shortest route to achieving that was easy, Márquez said. “To do that, taking engineers makes that movement faster and cheaper. Because in the end, you go in the way that the other manufacturers go, and he will give you the information for sure from another manufacturer. In the end, Honda has the budget, all these things, they have the biggest potential inside this paddock.”
Luca Marini, always the most insightful of MotoGP riders, felt this was the right move for Honda to make. “I think that Romano will bring us a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge. In Aprilia they made a fantastic job in these last years and I’m super happy for this news. We will try to treat him in the best way since the beginning, try to be a family with all the Japanese guys, I think will be a great support for us.”
Marini didn’t believe that adding Albesiano to HRC’s project should change the way they work. “I don’t think that will change all the philosophy of Honda, of all the years. I think that we are super good in many things and we will try to improve our strongest point because in some things the bike is incredible and the Japanese made a fantastic job every time.”
What was needed was to improve communication between the many parts of the project, Marini said. “We just need a little bit more maybe coordination, communication sometimes. Try to be more direct between what’s happening in the garage, in the truck and Japan. And try to have everybody together speaking a lot, between me and the engineers, and try to improve this area.”
That is something which has already begun to change. The Honda garage features microphones for the riders, so that engineers back in Japan can listen along to the debriefs by the Repsol Honda riders as they happen during the session. “I think that since my arrival, from the beginning of the season, everything is changing a lot in a good way and I’m super positive for this.”
Marini also had a clear idea of the area where Albesiano could improve the Honda RC213V.”I think that the strongest point of Aprilia during this season was the edge grip, the first pick up moment when you lift the bike from 60° to 40°,” Marini said. “That area Aprilia has the best grip in the grid. So if he will help to catch that, to understand that, it will be a big improvement for us.”
Was this an attempt by Honda to follow the path which Yamaha have beaten, by taking European engineers and including them in the development process? Marini was dismissive of Yamaha’s approach. “The result of Yamaha is not coming,” he insisted.
Yes, Yamaha had made progress, but not as much as it looked. “They started from a good level,” Marini insisted. “They were not starting so far behind as Honda. So I think that the gap for them was easier to be closer to the top.”
Honda face a tougher challenge, Marini insisted. “We started from 2 seconds from Ducati, now we are getting closer to one second, but it’s still not enough. But I think we have to follow our line. To make the good things that Honda needs in this moment. Everybody has the same target, try to catch victory again as soon as possible. We are doing a good job with a good effort from everybody and I think that next year will be everything better.”
Will Albesiano be able to make a difference? There is no doubting his technical expertise and his background, taking Aprilia’s MotoGP project and making it competitive within the space of a few years. Honda’s starting position is much stronger than Aprilia’s when they entered as a serious factory effort in 2015.
But the task Albesiano faces now is very different to the one he faced back in 2015. Back then, he was moving internally in a company he knew well, working with people he had known for years, in a national, regional, and corporate culture that was entirely his own. Now, Albesiano has to take on the task of working with a completely different corporate culture, communicating in a completely different language, and work across national and cultural barriers to achieve their shared objectives.
And in the end, it will come down to one thing. How much control will Albesiano have, and how much will Honda and HRC be willing to listen and make the changes he wants? The answer to that will only come with time. Will he be granted that time?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting MotoMatters.com. You can help by either taking out a subscription, supporting us on Patreon, by making a donation, or contributing via our GoFundMe page. You can find out more about subscribing to MotoMatters.com here.