8 defining 2019 MotoGP updates

As always, Marc Marquez will head into the 2019 season as the man to beat – this time joined by new teammate Jorge Lorenzo . While Qatar has been something of a bogey circuit for the Hondas, Honda Racing Corporation has spent the best part of its winter development program focussed solely on the engine, extracting more horses but also making it easier for riders to get the most out of the extra power. Both Lorenzo and Marquez have been busy on post-operation recuperation during the off-season and, while they’ll be very close to fully fit in the opening rounds of 2019, expect them to be on-song and regularly on podiums from the first European round.

The notoriously tight-lipped and utterly competent race boss at Ducati, Gigi Dall’Inga, has been thinking outside the box yet again and the fruits of his labour have been the talking points of the off-season. It started with the torque arm, a common practice some 30 years ago, which appeared on Jack Miller’s GP19 during the Jerez test in November. Then there’s the mysterious and so-called ‘salad box’ underneath the rear tail which has grown in size on the 2019 Desmosedicis, the bulbous carbon fibre shrouds covering the front brake and the air-deflecting scoop on Petrucci’s belly pan. The two biggest talking points are the new-for-2019 aerodynamics package, which Ducati has been a fierce advocator for, and a mysterious switch which has appeared on the top triple clamp of the 2019 machines which many believe to be a mechanical hole shot device that will keep the fork compressed until the first turn to improve tractability off the start line. Electronic holeshot aids are banned in MotoGP, but the rules make no mention of a manual device. Whether they’re additions merely to play on the minds of rivals, or genius contraptions from the genius Gigi, Ducati is focussed on winning the 2019 MotoGP world title this year.

For the last 20 years, the factory Yamaha squad has used the latest-spec YZR-M1s while the firm’s Tech 3 satellite team has been forced to use one-year-old machinery. But with the Tech 3 squad defecting to KTM for the 2019 season – lured by the promise of current and factory-spec RC16s – the Japanese brand has opted to supply both Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo with the same 2019 machinery that Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi will campaign the season on. It’s not surprising, since the 2018 YZR-M1 brought red faces and a team personnel restructure, such was its drawbacks compared to the rest of the field of 2018 machines. And of course more bikes means more data for the factory Yamaha outfit, this year named Monster Yamaha. And with Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo already fast in pre-season tests, it’ll be enormously motivating for both Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales to ensure the rookie and the relatively inexperienced Morbidelli stay behind them in the points chase.

Suzuki has been on a trajectory of improvement for the last couple of seasons and 2019 will see it rubbing shoulders far more regularly with the dominant Ducatis, Hondas and Yamahas of the MotoGP world. Alex Rins has been fast and consistent all though pre-season testing, his confidence is soaring and, importantly, he’s completely injury free. He confirmed during the pre-event press conference in Qatar that the firm spent the off-season improving both the speed and the braking stability of the GSX-RR, two keys to building a successful race bike. Expect Alex Rins to be fast and fighting for podiums from Sunday night onwards.

Rookies by name, but not by nature. At the two most recent pre-seasons a rookie finished second fastest. It was last year’s Moto2 world champ and Alma Pramac Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia who grabbed headlines first in Sepang, when he finished 0.063 seconds behind factory rider Danilo Petrucci on a year-old machine. Even then he said he only felt “65 per cent” adapted to the MotoGP machinery. Come Qatar, however, it was the young and fast French rider Fabio Quartararo who raised eyebrows when he stopped the clock 0.233 seconds shy of factory Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales fastest time on the third and final day. Bagnaia and Quartararo are joined as MotoGP race first timers this weekend by Miguel Oliveira in the Tech 3 KTM squad and Joan Mir in the ever-improving factory Suzuki team. Of course none of them are expected to be fighting for the title – there’ll even be little expectation for them to be gunning for race wins – but their talent and early speed means they’ll certainly be cats among the protagonist pigeons at more than a few rounds.

As manufacturers spend more time evaluating the importance of aerodynamics and improving their packages, aero set-ups will play a pretty big role in the outcome of the 2019 season. We won’t know exactly which packages the teams have opted for until the first practice session of the weekend, but downforce keeps the front wheel on the deck under acceleration and when these machines are capable of upwards of 270hp, that’s important. It’s not just winglets, Ducati has been experimenting with rear seat wings, front wheel shrouds and even deflectors said to help tyre life. Danilo Petrucci, who has always struggled keeping his rear tyre cool enough to last race distance, has been testing a carbon fibre scoop and the rear of his bellypan which is said to deflect more air onto the rear hoop in a bid to better regulate its temperature. He’s again shed even more kilos for his first season in a factory-supported team, again to reduce the amount of generated in the tyre.

For the sake of fairness, a new long-lap penalty system has been introduced for the 2019 season. So at an appropriate corner at each and every circuit on the 19-round calendar, a penalty lane will be added which takes the rider off the track limits and will add around two seconds to his lap time. It replaces the previous penalty system where a rider was forced to drop a position, but in some cases this could mean dropping back behind a rider who was right on the penalised rider’s tail, or in other cases the rider would have to drop back considerably and wait for the next rider in order to appease the stewards. This will even out the penalties.

For the first time since his controversial switch to the MotoGP paddock directly from Moto3, Aussie Jack Miller has got a factory machine underneath him. Still in the satellite Alma Pramac Ducati squad alongside rookie Pecco Bagnaia, Miller takes over the role played by Danilo Petrucci last year as the ‘guinea pig’ for new parts for the factory squad. He’ll be further motivated not to be outshone by fast rookie Bagnaia as they both compete for the semi-available spot alongside Andrea Dovizioso in the 2020 factory team. As it stands, Petrucci, Miller and Bagnaia all stand a chance for the coveted seat and Miller, who’s fitter and more mature than he’s ever been, will be gunning for top spot.