The 2022 MotoGP World Championship season officially gets underway this weekend with the first official test taking place at Sepang, Malaysia on February 5-6.
With all 24 riders – plus the usual testers – sharing a circuit for the first time since November, this is a first chance to get a sense of which teams and riders have gotten to work over the winter.
Testing, as always, is just that. Varying work programs, tire choices and fuel loads mean that fastest lap times don’t tell the whole story, but deeper analysis should uncover a thread to establishing who is roughly in good shape for the opener in Qatar in March.
As the Class of 2022 prepares to burn some gum, here are some burning questions we’ll be answering next Sunday.
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1 – Will the new Yamaha convince Fabio Quartararo to stay?
Of all the teams taking part in the first test at Sepang, Yamaha Factory Racing has arguably the biggest reason to be quite nervous heading into Malaysia.
While the memories of last season’s MotoGP title win – the first since 2015 – will remain fresh in the minds of all in the team, Yamaha went into the winter knowing that it faces the task of repelling the evolving Ducati threat and Convincing Fabio Quartararo to stay beyond this year.
Indeed, the Frenchman has been honest in his assessment of the Yamaha M1, echoing the likes of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales before him, lamenting the bike’s relative top speed disadvantage, which he says can no longer be negated by the chassis’ superior cornering ability in a direct battle with the Ducati GP21/22.
Traditionally, Yamaha has been steadfast in its view that the M1 doesn’t need more power, but it’s no coincidence that Quartararo has been open to exploring options for 2023 as it forces the manufacturer to potentially choose between its philosophy and its star title win need driver.
With Honda and possibly Ducati looking for his signature, Quartararo says he will wait until pre-season testing to make a decision on his future. The start of the season is almost two months away, but one of the big stories of the year could be starting to form this weekend.
2 – Can an eight-man Ducati contingent flex its wings?
Ducati enters the 2022 MotoGP season with boasting to match their burgeoning status as favorites to win their first premier class title since 2007.
The Borgo Panigale company may have left itself too much work to prevent Quartararo from clinching the 2021 title, but few could deny that they had the fastest bike for the latter part of the year.
Fast on tracks not normally suited to the Desmosedici, Pecco Bagnaia was a force to be reckoned with after claiming a long-awaited maiden victory and then heading into testing while fellow riders will be watching closely.
He’s not the only Ducati saddle rider to draw attention, however, as Jack Miller needs a good opening ahead of a critical season in which he must convincingly beat Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini to prevent them from replacing him in 2023.
At least Ducati is strong in numbers with four GP22s and four GP21s filling the grid, including returning Gresini Racing and debut team Moony VR46 Racing.
3 – Are Marc Marquez and Honda on the road to recovery?
Honda heads into the 2022 MotoGP season hoping that the first test will mark the beginning of the end in a litany of troubles that began back in November 2019 when Marc Marquez suffered the first of a series of injuries to endure over the next two years will occur.
Without its talisman, Honda subsequently lost its way in development, prompting the company to return to the drawing board to design a new generation RC213V [lead image] this looks significantly different than last year’s version.
With Marquez cleared for testing following a nerve-wracking winter period recovering from his troubling eye injury, Honda is hopeful the Spaniard can return to the devastating form that saw him contest his last two races of 2021 to win in a way reminiscent of his former dominance.
It also hopes the new bike will be more forgiving of its other riders as Pol Espargaro is under pressure to perform well given Honda’s interest in Quartararo and Joan Mir, while Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami recover from disappointing campaigns in 2021 need the LCR entries.
4 – Will Darryn Binder prove critics right or wrong?
Five rookies will make their debuts in the 24-man grid in 2022, but most eyes will be on just one of them; Darryn Binder.
The South African has drawn controversy, comment and criticism for his remarkable jump from Moto3 to MotoGP on the RNF Yamaha M1.
The man himself takes it easy, while those poring over the finer details of his Moto3 stats will point out that his performance and talent are not fully reflected in the seemingly modest results on paper.
On the plus side, expectations are muted enough to leave plenty of room for Binder to exceed them, but he will have to contend with four Moto2 graduates riding more modern machines than his underpowered, year-old Yamaha M1.
5 – Which manufacturer will make the biggest step forward?
We’ve talked about title favorites Ducati, a nervous Yamaha and a determined Honda, but what about MotoGP’s other three big manufacturers?
In fact, Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia all arrive at Sepang knowing they need a significant improvement on last season.
After surprisingly winning the 2020 title, Suzuki’s cautious approach to bike development simply pushed its limits and failed to build on its many other traits. Qualifying remains a frustrating issue, often forcing Mir and Alex Rins to work harder on race day to fight their way back to the top.
While Mir did a mightier job than is arguably credited for securing third place overall, he never looked really close to claiming a win all season while Rins grabbed more headlines for his crashes than made for his results. On the plus side, the Suzuki GSX-RR is probably still the best all-around package on the grid, albeit one that now needs to make steps across the board.
The KTM yo-yo rode up and down the grid throughout 2021, looking as unbeatable (Barcelona) at times as it was completely anonymous. Consistency is the watchword for 2022, as demonstrated by a tenacious Brad Binder who finished sixth overall last year despite only cracking the top six in six races all year.
Miguel Oliveira, who once looked like a potential title contender, has been damaged along with his confidence and shoulder from Austria as the Portuguese is now under pressure to prove he’s turned things around mentally.
With a ‘Sunday bike’ often doing better in races than in qualifying, improving its effort on Saturday could be key in allowing the RC16 to go from an intermittent threat to a permanent one.
Finally, in 2021, Aprilia finally opened the door they had been knocking on for some time with a series of eye-catching performances. The test, now an internal effort following the split with Gresini, will be a good opportunity to see progress in the hands of Maverick Vinales, so often the pacemaker at the end of the pre-season on the Yamaha.
However, in recent years Aprilia has flattered the idea of cheating on testing… after all, testing is testing.
6 – Which pressured MotoGP riders need to go full steam ahead?
With 2022 marking the end of the current contract cycle for the vast majority of drivers on the grid, you can expect the first Sepang Test to set the stage for some secret squirrel promotions between teams and managers.
The so-called summer slump seems to be getting earlier every year as teams try to land their man at all costs. That prematureness doesn’t help those coming off a disappointing 2021 campaign, however.
Among those whose seats are believed to be threatened are Jack Miller (Ducati Corse), Alex Rins (Suzuki), Miguel Oliveira (KTM), Alex Marquez (LCR Honda) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), who remains hopeful of the market open long enough for them to at least try to get strong results from the opening rounds.