The 2023 MotoGP season is almost approaching already, with testing set to begin next month. As for now, ‘team launch season’ has started, and Gresini Racing is the latest team to launch their challenge for the new season, following the factory Yamaha team’s reveal earlier this week.
So far, two teams have launched their MotoGP projects for 2023. Firstly, the factory Yamaha team launched on 17 January, and on 21 January Gresini Racing has launched its new challenge.
Overview
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – The factory Yamaha team launches 2023 with new camo paint
Gresini Racing – Small changes to Gresini’s paint for 2023 as it welcomes Alex Marquez
The Gresini Racing team has launched its 2023 MotoGP squad, with a small update to the color scheme of 2022.
The big change for Gresini in 2023 is the arrival of Alex Marquez from LCR Honda, who comes to partner second-year rider Fabio Di Giannantonio. Marquez struggled in Honda, and has not been afraid of speaking about the situation inside HRC in 2022.
As for his new Ducati adventure, it presents an opportunity for Marquez to reinvent himself in MotoGP, somewhat. Marquez was able to show in 2020 that he can be a podium finisher and victory contender in MotoGP at Le Mans and Aragon, but was unable to replicate that thereafter. It is well-known that the Honda RC213V has not been the most competitive motorcycle in recent years of MotoGP, and a difficult one to ride in addition. Moving to Ducati, Marquez swaps maybe the most difficult bike to ride in MotoGP for arguably the most straightforward.
At the Gresini team launch, Marquez said: “Today is a really special day: to see this team so tight together and ready is a thing that brings great emotions. To be here at this presentation is a very special thing. To see so much eagerness and excitement within the team and the people that came see us is something I really like. Now the work starts, for a preseason that hopefully with enabling us to be 100% ready for the first race at Portimão. The goal is to have a great start to the season because it will set the pace for the rest of 2023. We have the tools and the will to do well; it won’t be easy, obviously, but the right approach helps a lot in these scenarios.”
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Fabio Di Giannantonio said: “We start 2023 with a pinch more of red, which stands for determination, passion, fire… I’m eager to continue growing and do well. We want to take this new season race by race, with the awareness that this is the right time: the top ten should be the regular occurrence, while top five a realistic goal. The team is charged up and I trained 300% hard for this year – we’re ready!”
Gresini team owner, Nadia Padovani, said: “We’re very excited for this new adventure. 2022 was incredible in every way, but the idea is to continue to improve and surprise. We’re a young team with great ambition: Fabio will have the chance to showcase all his potential in his sophomore year and Alex is eager to take the stage back… we will do our best to make sure both can succeed. Today is almost a return to normal with such an important presentation and with the people joining us: a big thank you goes to the sponsors and the whole team who worked hard to be ready.”
Gresini also launched their MotoE and Moto2 teams alongside their MotoGP squad. The most interesting part being that they are now sponsored by QJ Motor in Moto2.
THE Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team has become the first contender of the 2023 championship to reveal the livery it will be running in the coming season.
The wraps came off at a glitzy ceremony in Indonesia, during Yamaha’s S3 Dealer Meeting which is claimed to be the largest gathering of its kind anywhere in the world. Joining Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli at the launch were Yamaha MotoGP team boss Lin Jarvis, Yamaha President Yoshihiro Hidaka, and Yamaha MotoGP team director Massimo Meregalli.
After a tough year in 2022, which saw Quartararo lose his title to Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia, Yamaha has taken the chance to lightly update it’s distinctive blue, black and green livery, with the fairing and nose cone of the new bike featuring a distinctive dazzle- camo paint design. The entire livery has been designed for 2023 by legendary helmet designer Aldo Drudi.
Jarvis also revealed that the new look and feel of the official Monster Yamaha team will see the same effect applied to other racing classes. “You will also see later this week a similar [livery] design in supercross and motocross.” He said, “So this is a Monster Yamaha new look and feel”.
The new, youthful-looking camouflage design is no mistake either, with Jarvis going on to explain the choice in a little more detail.
“I always felt our previous bike was the most beautiful and clean in the racing world, but now you will notice it’s a little bit more aggressive. A little bit younger… You can see some camouflage feel and this is not by accident. The [livery] has been designed by one of the top designers in our world, Aldo Drudi in Italy, and the idea is to be aggressive: we are going to battle! We are going to war! We are going to challenge!”
While the livery is now known, the actual look and technical design for 2023 is not, with MotoGP teams generally keeping their technical updates for the coming season under wraps until the first test of the season – taking place in Sepang next month.
In addition to the MotoGP livery, the new camo paint has also been applied to the factory MXGP YZ450Fs of Jeremy Seewer, Glenn Coldenhoff, and Maxime Renaux in the MXGP World Championship; the factory MX2 YZ250Fs of the Kemea team’s Thibault Benistant and Jago Geerts; to the factory Star Racing YZ450Fs of Eli Tomac and Dylan Ferrandis in the 450 class of AMA Supercross (and presumably Justin Cooper in the rounds he does of 450SX) and AMA Pro Motocross; and to the Star Racing YZ250Fs of Levi Kitchen, Stiles Robertson, Nick Romano, and Nate Thrasher in 250-class AMA Supercross, as well as for Justin Cooper when he returns for AMA Pro Motocross.
This is also why the Star Racing team were being protective of their bikes being photographed at the AMA Supercross season-opener in Anaheim, since the livery used there was not the one they will be using for the rest of the season, as it was only announced on January 20 on the day before the second race of the season in San Diego.