It is not so long ago, but well forgotten, the time when MotoGP teams had 5 days of private testing in addition to official testing to develop their machines with their official riders...
This was still the case in 2018 but, today, no private tests are authorized for official riders and only test riders can develop the motorcycles privately, within the limit of the allocated tire allocation.
For official drivers, only official tests remain, and these still tend to be reduced. For the 2023 season, they break down as follows:
- November 8, 2022, a test day after the last race weekend of the season on the same circuit of the season finale, in Valencia.
- From February 5 to 7, 2023 in Sepang, three days of shakedown reserved for test riders and MotoGP rookies.
- From February 10 to 12, 2023 in Sepang, three days of official IRTA testing.
- March 11 and 12 in Portimão, two days of official IRTA testing before the first race of the season.
- Two one-day or two-day tests following a GP weekend, with locations and dates to be agreed between Dorna and IRTA. In 2023, the choice fell on Jerez (one day) and Misano (two days).
In practice, MotoGP riders now have a total of 6 days to develop their new bikes at the start of the season, compared to more than ten previously.
This trend is also found in Moto2 and Moto3, where inter-season testing generally goes from 7 to 3 days, except for rookies in both categories who have been authorized to ride until the end of November 2022. Another new feature, the introduction of Concession points for manufacturers of chassis in Moto2: by applying the same scale as in MotoGP, only MV Agusta is concerned and has 7 days of additional private testing.
For everyone else, the only official IRTA test will take place over three days in Portimão from March 17 to 19, 2023, after a first unofficial but somewhat curious “partially IRTA” test in Jerez at the beginning of March…
