Ducati had already communicated on its testing with Casey Stoner and Michele Pirro at Sepang from January 25, i.e. 5 days before the official IRTA test which will take place with the factory drivers from January 30 to February 1.
According to the statements of Davide Tardozzi, the Sports Director of Ducati Corse, the aim of his sessions is to try different fairings in order to try to compensate for the absence of wings in 2017.
Today, after some information gathering directly in Malaysia, we can announce to you that Ducati will not be alone on the track, but that all other factories namely Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Aprilia and KTM will also send their motorcycles and test riders there.
No satellite teams will be present.
For Honda and Yamaha, two motorcycles are expected, with probably and respectively Hiroshi Aoyama et Takumi Takahashi for the winged coat of arms, as well as Katsuyuki Nakasuga et Kouta Nozane for the three tuning forks.
We have no information regarding other brands, but we can assume that Takuya Tsuda will be there for Suzuki, Eugene Laverty and/or Mike Di Meglio for Aprilia, as well as at least Mika Kallio for KTM.
Obviously, no timings and probably very few photos will leak from these private sessions primarily intended to “blow up” the 2017 MotoGP.
Should we deduce from this that it will also be “the fairing ball” before the official IRTA test on January 30 which will see its times broadcast?
Photo credit : © Dorna/Max Kroiss
