The penultimate MotoGP 2019 pre-season tests have started this Tuesday at the Sepang International Circuit. During three intense days, the eleven teams of the World Championship will audit their bike’s development ahead of the new season, which is due to start on March the 10th in Qatar.

Honda, the great title favourite, arrives at the training sessions in Asia decimated by injuries. In comparison, rivals such as Yamaha, Ducati and even Suzuki, seemed in better form. As everybody knows, both drivers that make up the Japanese dream team; Marc Marquez and his new partner Jorge Lorenzo, have visited the operating room this winter.

Marquez: “Few but good quality laps in Sepang” 

Team leader Marc Marquez has arrived in Malaysia wrapped in cotton wool. The champion from Cervera had already explained during the Repsol Honda team presentation on January the 23rd in Madrid, that his shoulder was not healing from surgery as fast as he had expected. His recovery has therefore been longer and he hasn’t arrived in Sepang in perfect form.

The Catalan driver is going to have to pace himself during these training sessions and more importantly, not take any unnecessary risk. A fall could be fatal for his fragile shoulder. Aware of his situation, he has decided to only do a few but good quality laps.

The dilemma for the Spaniard will be between being sensible or pushing his bike to the limit in order to become truly familiar with it. If both drivers are to cautions, the Golden Wing team could have a problem.

Drivers are in charge of transmitting their sensations to the engineers, and this is essential in guiding the development of the bikes. Marquez has a great ‘technical feeling’ and his feedback after the training sessions is usually crucial. If he cannot put the bike against the ropes, however, the diagnosis could be seriously lacking.

Lorenzo absents from Malaysia

The situation of his new partner, Jorge Lorenzo, is even more complicated. The driver from Mallorca is not even taking part in the MotoGP Sepang tests as he is convalescing from an operation he underwent on January the 21st to repair the scaphoid on his left wrist, which he damaged while training in Italy.

With virtually no time to heal before the Malaysian appointment, the Spaniard has preferred to take it easy and allow time to recover completely. In this way, he can be in top form for the last of the pre-season tests which are scheduled for the 23rd to the 25th of February in Qatar.

His absence from Malaysia means he won’t be able to get to know the improvements – and even the 2019 specifications – that Honda brings to Sepang just yet. Lorenzo has had to interrupt his familiarisation to the new bike which had started so well. At the official tests in Jerez he had declared to have good sensations.

All these delays could translate into a real disadvantage when facing his team-mate from Cervera … and the rest of the 2019 grid. Something similar happened to him when he arrived at Ducati in 2017. On that occasion he had to miss the Jerez tests, a disadvantage that he dragged throughout the championship, and which clearly limited his performance onboard the red missile. We hope that history does not repeat itself.

Bradl, Lorenzo´s replacement

Honda has pinned its hopes on test driver Stefan Bradl to replace him. The role of the German driver, who already replaced Cal Crutchlow in the final stretch of 2018, can be key. He was riding last week in Jerez to contribute to the development of the new bike, and Marquez has praised the German’s work as outstanding.

Incidentally, the British runner from the Honda ‘satellite’ team (LCR Honda Castrol) also suffered a serious injury after breaking his ankle in Australia in 2018. The recovery was so complicated that Crutchlow even considered withdrawing from the competition altogether. Fortunately, he is now on the right track, but it seems as if Honda has been jinxed lately.

MotoGP Sepang tests Images: Repsol Honda & Box Repsol