While Maverick Vinales, his new teammate, was living a daydream, breaking the times at each circuit he passed, Valentino was working discreetly in depth, with the team of old hands who form his close guard.
At the start of the year, the situation is very different from what it was at the start of 2016: all teams now master the unique electronics and better understand the Michelin philosophy, while Honda has an engine less geared towards rodeo than last year, and Jorge left for Ducati. The big news is the arrival of Vinales in place of Lorenzo. On just one quick lap there seems to be a difference. On the duration of a race, we will have a more precise idea on Sunday evening, and we will know where to place Rossi in his title race.
For Valentino, “ I am very happy that the season is finally starting. The winter has been busy and demanding, and now I really need to run. Our bike has improved a lot over the winter and, although we are not OK yet, we will work hard over the next few days in Qatar to be ready for the start of the first race of the season.
“We will see what the weather conditions will be and we will try to find the best possible configuration. I am convinced that with the team we will be ready on Sunday.”
We can therefore see that the situation has clearly improved, since he declared at the end of the third day of testing in Qatar that “I think we are not ready for the first race. We don't yet understand the bike 100%, we don't understand it completely to get the best out of it. We are worried because, apart from a few isolated good laps, this entire offseason has been difficult ».
But he reassured his supporters by assuring that “ It's important to have been able to improve our level significantly. We really progressed in the sensations with the bike. I am relieved because until now these winter tests have been complicated. I have never been good at this type of exercise. Since this offseason, I can't feel the front tire with the new chassis, it's too soft for me. I can't take turns quickly. We still changed a lot of things and I thank Yamaha because the engineers really racked their brains to get to this point. We reviewed everything from top to bottom but it was worth it ».
