Bagnaia, who has the chance to join only Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez in winning three ‘MotoGP’ titles in a row, laid a solid foundation for his 2024 campaign by giving the new Desmosedici engine a thumbs up at Valencia in November.

“In Valencia, sometimes you cannot make the difference regarding the engine, under many points of view, but we managed to do a great job, so I left Valencia very happy,” Bagnaia said at Monday’s team launch.

“Two days before I had won the world title, so I was generally happy. But the test was extremely positive.”

Bagnaia, who won his second premier-class crown in a final round showdown with Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, will again be one of four riders on the latest factory spec machine while VR46 and Gresini (including new signing Marc Marquez) have the proven GP23.

“We are going to raise the bar more and more,” Bagnaia declared. “The fact that you have eight Ducati bikes on track is something that can favour me, but also the other way around.

“And I think that all the teams [manufacturers] have made a step forward. The KTM last year had improved a lot. Aprilia as well. And Honda and Yamaha will make a step forward too. They will improve their performance as well.

“I’m eager to hit the track and pick up where we left off. It’s bound to be a challenging season, but we’re ready to face it with our usual determination.”

Bagnaia came under intense pressure from Martin during the second half of last season, briefly losing the title lead in Indonesia before rallying back.

“Last year I learned that you need to be quiet. You need to stay calm because if you work well, the results will arrive,” he said.

Bagnaia and team-mate Enea Bastianini will take to the track alongside their MotoGP rivals during the Sepang test from February 6-8.

Injuries played a big part, of course, with the four-time Gresini Ducati race winner missing nine of the 20 Sunday races.

But even when he wasn’t hurt, the Italian struggled to feel comfortable on the GP23, which notably required a different corner-entry technique.

The good news for ‘Bastia’ is that an early version of the GP24 tried at the Valencia test was closer to the old feeling during braking and entry. But he knows that maximising the upcoming six days of pre-season testing in Sepang and Qatar will be crucial.

“2023 was a challenging year, and I look forward to redeeming myself in the upcoming season. We have an exciting 2024 ahead of us,” Bastianini said at Monday’s Ducati Lenovo team launch.

“When I hopped on the new bike for 2024 [at Valencia], I found myself at ease. I was really comfortable. It was a small change, but I could feel the differences between this bike and the previous one. I think that in Sepang there will be further ‘news’.

“I need to do more tests,” he added. “Last year I was given a bike that was already ready. I couldn’t test it as I wanted and today the details make all the difference. That’s why I want to test more. But I feel physically fit. I feel ready and I’m fully motivated.”

The Sepang test takes place from February 6-8.

Stoner spent four seasons at the Italian team, but his tally of race wins decreased from 10 in his world championship year to 6, 4 and 3 before moving to Repsol Honda, with instant title success, in 2011.

Valentino Rossi took Stoner’s place at Ducati, but the seven time MotoGP champion was left winless during his two seasons on the Desmosedici.

Among those that paid the price for The Doctor’s woes was Ducati Corse general manager Filippo Preziosi, the technical ‘driving force’ behind the Desmosedici from its 2003 debut, who left at the end of 2012.

Ducati sank to a podium-less low the following season before signing Gigi Dall’Igna, from Aprilia, to take over its MotoGP project.

The first wins of the Dall’Igna era came in 2016 and Ducati has been a championship contender since 2017. But it still took until 2022 to finally seal the title, which Bagnaia then defended in 2023, when he headed an all-Ducati top three.

“I personally think still Ducati would have been more successful in earlier seasons,” Stoner told Gazzetta dello Sport, before explaining that budget constraints had masked Preziosi’s genius.

“When they got rid of Filippo [Preziosi], it was their biggest mistake. And I have no respect for the way this happened.

“This guy was very clever. In the years I was with him, whatever bike we started the year, we finished the year. We didn’t ever get any new parts during the season.

“For the entire season, everybody else was updating and improving and we had the same exact package.

“So if we had a problem we had to find a way to fix it with the bike we had and this was always a challenge for me and my team.

“Then in the middle of the season, we would have the first test on the next year’s bike. It was always an improvement and I always wanted to race that bike for the rest of the season, knowing that we could be half-a-second to almost one-second [a lap] faster sometimes.

“But we never had the budget to produce another chassis for me to race the rest of the season. So we were never able to do this.

“And of course, Gigi’s done a good job. But it took a lot of time and a lot of budget to arrive there.”

Among the technical innovations introduced under Preziosi’s watch was the carbon fibre chassis, which Ducati stepped away from in its quest to try and make Rossi competitive in 2012.

Carbon fibre frame technology then made a return to MotoGP with KTM in 2023.

At 26, rather than 30, former Repsol Honda team-mate and fellow (Suzuki) world champion Joan Mir can afford to wait longer than Marquez.

But not, he warned, “much more”.

“Yes. For sure something is changing [in Honda]. But normally, when they make such big changes in a company, you need a couple of years to understand if these changes work or not. It’s like a bet,” Mir said.

“We need a change. I was able to see that change [is happening]. But, honestly, I have a bit more time than Marc, but I don’t have much more… So we’ll see.”

Like most of the premier-class grid, Mir’s current HRC contract expires at the end of 2024.

The Spaniard, who slotted into Repsol Honda after Suzuki’s surprise exit, scored just 26 points during a miserable, injury-interrupted debut year on the RCV.

But there were signs of promise at the Valencia test, where Mir tried the latest 2024 prototype for the first time.

“Honestly, I’m very happy. It’s the first time I’ve been able to feel a difference since I arrived [at Honda]. That something really works better,” Mir said, crediting an improvement in weight, grip and front-end feeling, after a season in which he had suffered 24 crashes.

“Normally I wasn’t a rider that crashed more than 5-6 times per year in all my career, because once I was able to understand where the limit is… it was one of my strongest points,” Mir added.

“To fight for something big, you need to understand where you can be constant and not make mistakes. We won a championship [at Suzuki] for that reason.

“This year [2023], for some reason, all that disappeared and we are just trying to find a limit and trying to find a speed. All the crashes are in a similar point and this shows I am still pushing.

“You cannot say to me ‘Just finish the races’ – at some point of the season I thought about this, but mentally it wasn’t helping me.

“I prefer to give everything and crash and go back home thinking I gave 100%.”

Marquez likewise crashed a record 29 times and, before leaving Honda for Gresini Ducati, explained:

“Where we lose more [on the Honda] is the exit of the corner and where we are gaining is the entry.

“If you go too fast into the corner, you will go out slower. But if we go in slower, we cannot go out faster because we have a lack of traction.

“My strong point is a V style: go in super fast, stop and go, and pick up the bike very quick. But [some circuits] don’t have these kinds of corners where I can make the difference.

“So it’s there where [Honda] are trying to understand the way to improve for the future.

“I’m not the engineer to say what is the problem, but we have been trying different things and the problem remains the same.

“We also tried different [engine] torque character and they are working very hard, but [Honda] needs time to understand where is the problem exactly.”

While Marquez is swapping the Honda for a title-winning Desmosedici GP23, Mir will be hoping that two riders switching in the other direction – Luca Marini and Johann Zarco – plus the revised concession rules can help accelerate the RCV’s revival.

And if the 2024 Honda is up to the task, Mir insists he is more than ready to deliver.

“I know that if I have a competitive bike then I will be there straight away,” he said.

While Martin scored 50 points more over the final ten rounds than over the opening ten events, despite the cancellation of the Phillip Island Sprint, di Giannantonio was hot on his heels with +49 points.

Without the tyre pressure penalty at the Valencia finale demoting him from second to fourth, Diggia would have been credited with another 7 points.

The Gresini rider’s epic turnaround, which included a debut GP podium in Phillip Island, then a Sprint podium and dream victory in Qatar, carried the Italian from 16th to 12th in the final world championship standings.

di Giannantonio (114 points) was notably among only six riders to score more than 100 points during the second half of the season, after Martin (239), world champion Francesco Bagnaia (216), Marco Bezzecchi (146), Brad Binder (133) and Maverick Vinales (118).

“MotoGP is about hard work and trying to make every little part of the bike and your riding style as much perfect as possible,” explained di Giannantonio, who had finished the opening ten rounds with a best race result of just eighth place.

“You are fighting against the best of the best [riders]. You are also against the best teams in the world. So, you really have to be perfect in all areas. But you have to start somewhere. So it takes time.

“For many reasons, [my 2022 rookie season] was a zero year for me. So [in 2023], I started from completely a blank page.”

di Giannantonio credited the arrival of Joan Mir’s ex-world championship winning Suzuki crew chief Frankie Carchedi, who joined forces with the Italian at the start of 2023, for plotting his path to the front.

“The arrival of Frankie helped me a lot to understand how to ride this bike,” di Giannantonio said. “We started to fix every little thing, step by step, every little detail.

“It takes time. You cannot come from being last to making podiums in two races.

“So we started to work throughout the season. If you see my growth, we started to make a little progress during all the championship.

“You have to trust the process. Sometimes I was expecting things to happen earlier and it was not coming. Sometimes I didn’t expect it and it was coming.

“So, you have to trust this process. Step by step, we arrived at an amazing level.”

The 25-year-old delivered his second half flourish despite the added pressure of knowing he had lost his MotoGP seat to Marc Marquez for 2024, who will work with Carchedi this season.

After spending six rounds with his future hanging in the balance, di Giannantonio was finally confirmed at the VR46 Ducati team after the Valencia finale.

Diggia will work with ex-Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini crew chief David Muñoz this season.

The revised concessions rules mean that Yamaha and Honda are now eligible to take part in private testing with their race riders.

Honda is rumoured to be considering over 20 private tests.

Yamaha is yet to confirm its private testing plans but, like Honda, will have its MotoGP race riders on track for the Sepang Shakedown test, which precedes the official February 6-8 outing.

“They are working on this [private testing] plan. For sure I will do the Shakedown test… More days to test, means more things to test,” said Rins after his M1 debut at Valencia.

“I’m feeling good because it gives me the opportunity to be more ready for the start of the season.”

But it also means Rins will be spending even less time at home, during a year that already includes a record 22 Grands Prix plus six Official tests.

“My wife is not happy!” he joked.

Among the things that Rins will be working on in Malaysia are the ‘throttle management’ and electronics, although he disagreed with the verdict of some riders who have described the M1 as ‘aggressive’.

“I felt the bike quite smooth, honestly. More than I was expecting,” he said. “In terms of the throttle response, we need to still adapt the electronic side to my riding style, but it felt quite… Not aggressive. Normal.”

Aiding Rins in adapting to the M1, his third different MotoGP machine in three seasons, will be former Suzuki engine management engineer, Yuta Shimabukuro.

Rins said Shimabukuro, who spent 2023 with GASGAS Tech3, had already proven his worth at the Valencia test.

“The fact that we have him in the team [Yamaha] is quite nice because he has a lot of experience with the Suzuki bike,” said Rins. “Then he was one year with GASGAS, the KTM.

“It was a good decision to take him [to Yamaha] because he already asked for something on the electronic side, something similar to what I was using [at Suzuki], and it was working well.

“So I think we have a lot of things to try and to test.”

The Sepang Shakedown takes place from February 1-3.

While racing incidents are part of the game, the penultimate Qatar round saw two examples of riders losing their temper in a practice session.

The first saw Pol Espargaro and Marco Bezzecchi cut each other up after the flag before Bezzecchi bumped Espargaro’s back wheel six times in the practice start zone.

A day later, it was Aleix Espargaro making the headlines when he lashed out and slapped Franco Morbidelli’s helmet after the pair had block passed each other several times, and run off track, for which the Aprilia rider received a 10,000 euro fine and six-place grid penalty.

“If you have more and more races in the championship, you have more chances to see these kinds of situations,” said Marc Marquez, no stranger to on-track controversy during his career.

“But in the end, if you are not involved [in it yourself], these kind of things are good for the championship! Because it creates the social media [interest].

“It’s like this now. But it’s also true that we need to take care for the image of the sport.”

Marquez had previously taken a similar view of the repeated TV replays in the immediate aftermath of Francesco Bagnaia’s scary lap one accident in Catalunya.

“For the riders, it’s very difficult to see that crash many, many times, especially when you need to go out again. But Pecco was good and Dorna had the information from the ambulance that he was good,” Marquez said.

“It’s part of the show. Maybe it’s not necessary to show it many, many times. But it’s not my decision. In my case, I turned off the TV and was fully concentrated on my job.

“But then it’s true that, for example, if you check the views on the internet from a crash compared to a race victory, it’s more views for the crash than the victory.

“So in the end, if people want to see that, the guys who produce the [TV] images must show it.

“But for the riders, it’s very difficult [to watch].”

Tempers flared between @AleixEspargaro and @FrankyMorbido12 in FP2 earlier on!

The Spaniard has been fined and handed a 6-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/0wOq1emo6x

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) November 18, 2023

Aleix: ‘Those 3-4 seconds made me look like a person I am not’

Both Qatar practice flare-ups were ultimately solved amicably between the riders involved.

“Yeah, just kids like to have fun on track!” joked Pol Espargaro. “I have a very good relationship with Bez, but people need to understand we are literally at 190 bpm heart rate, with adrenaline up in the sky and we all do stupid things sometimes.

“But if nothing goes very bad and nothing goes wrong, it’s better to step back a little bit. Just reach out a hand and move forward. Not generate more polemic.

“I really like Bez. He’s a very good guy. We are competitors, we live like each other, we all do mistakes sometimes. It’s OK. We will go for a beer tomorrow!”

The Aleix Espargaro/Morbidelli incident took longer to cool down but was resolved when the Spaniard went to see the Italian on the eve of the following Valencia round.

“It doesn’t matter if I felt that it was his fault or my fault. My reaction [the helmet slap] was completely wrong,” Aleix said. “I’m very sorry and I think those 3-4 seconds make me look like a person that I am not. I feel very bad.

“I went to his motor home. I sat on the couch with him and I said sorry to him, I apologised.”

The full thing as to why Bez gave @polespargaro a few little nudges #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/p70WVKXL4v

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) November 17, 2023

More races, more stress ‘but we have to deal with it’

While Marquez felt more races equate to a greater chance of such clashes, Espargaro pointed the finger at the extra stress generated by a bigger calendar and the high-pressure Sprint race weekend format.

“You think that what happened with my brother and Bezzecchi was normal in Qatar? For me, it was not normal. Marco is a very good guy. Pol is very good guy. But our minds arrive in a certain place, and then the fatigue makes it difficult,” Aleix said.

With two more events added to the 2024 season, meaning a record 22 GPs and 22 Sprint races, the factory Aprilia race winner added that he will, “work to understand how I can deal better with the tension in very high-tension moments to not repeat the situation.

“The seasons are longer and longer. The schedule of the weekends is more and more tight. But we are professionals, we have to deal with it and this is one of the things that I have to learn for the 2024 season.

“But it’s not a button that you can press. You are your way, I’m in my way. And how each of us reacts when you are full of tension is really difficult to control and really difficult to change.

“I’m working. And I will try. I changed quite a lot also my environment in the last two months [of the 2023 season], so I think this didn’t help also. For example, my friend Juan, who was travelling with me for the last 10 years was not with me since India.

“Hopefully for ‘24 I will be better.”

Morbidelli earlier eluded to a direct relationship between an increase in pressure on the riders and a general decrease in ‘respect’ on track, citing incidents such as riders persistently seeking a tow and hand gestures (above) if there is a perception of being held up.

“Back in the day, the ‘non-respect’ moments in MotoGP were maybe the last 3 laps of a race,” Morbidelli said. “Now that has spread throughout the whole weekend, from the first to last lap.

“This means there is a lot of pressure, and there is no respect whatsoever for the opponent. The opponent is the enemy! Grrrr! This is how it works now.”

‘Everybody is perfect on social media’

But, as Marquez indicated, a ‘harmless’ on-track incident can continue to resonate on social media long after the riders involved have buried the hatchet and moved on.

Aleix Espargaro, one of the few riders who still posts and engages with fans directly via his official accounts, said:

“Everybody with a telephone, when nobody can see them, is perfect. They are perfect humans. And I am not. So I fully accept the criticism, because I did a big mistake [with Morbidelli].

“I’m not defending my actions, it was completely wrong. But how many times [did you see this kind of thing happen] in sport… look at football.

“I know I will get again punished for this, but I don’t care what people say about me on social media. I’m lucky. I have everything that I dreamed of.

“I went to talk with Franco because I felt, from the bottom of my heart, I wanted to sit with him on the couch and give him a hug. That’s it. Not for the reaction [on social media].”

Brother Pol felt the ‘trauma’ of pushing a MotoGP bike to the limit week after week is not fully appreciated.

“I understand that in this new era of social media, where everyone can say any bullshit they want, that people like to talk.

“But I think it comes with some maturity and some intelligence that if you have not been in that situation – on a MotoGP bike at 360km/h, with this heart rate, with your adrenaline in the clouds – you cannot understand what we the riders are feeling and why we take some decisions that maybe are wrong.

“I’m not saying that what Aleix did was good or bad, or what Franco did was good or bad. I’m just saying that we all need to understand that in some moments, our situation as the riders is quite traumatic.”

An alternative take on the intensity factor was provided by Fabio Quartararo, who fought for the world championship in 2020, 2021 (winning the title) and 2022.

The Frenchman said he felt less stress, despite the punishing schedule, in 2023, since he was out of title contention early with an uncompetitive Yamaha.

But he added his situation was an exception.

“To be honest, from my side, the last 3-4 years have been much more stressful because of the result I had in the championship,” Quartararo said.

“When you’re P1, P2 in the championship the stress is much higher. Now [end of 2023] I’m playing for nothing, just trying to do my best and get the best result possible.

“Of course, you are always stressed before the start of a race. But I know that if I make a bad result it won’t change my life.

“[2022], 2021 and 2020 was much more stressful for me. So that’s why I think I’m not the right guy to ask [about the calendar increasing rider stress].”

After spending his entire 11-year MotoGP career at Repsol Honda, winning 59 races and six world championships, Marquez rode a Desmosedici for the first time at last November’s Valencia test.

But the real work will begin in Sepang next month, with an intensive three-day outing at the Malaysian Grand Prix venue.

“I start 2024 season with a lot of enthusiasm and desire, something that will never be lacking,” Marquez said. “I feel very well, very calm, I’m doing a normal pre-season, something I hadn’t been able to do for many years [due to injuries].

“Last year was only half normal because there were also problems with my shoulder, but now I have work to do in Malaysia and Qatar to continue adapting to the bike and the working style of the new technical team.

“I will have to adapt myself and then, when I get a good level, I will try to change things on the bike to feel completely comfortable.”

The Spaniard’s smile as he returned from his first outing on Gresini Ducati at Valencia made headlines around the world. He went on to briefly lead the timesheets on the way to a close fourth place, just 0.171s from the top.

“The first test in Valencia was good,” Marquez confirmed.

“It was the first day after a long time with a different riding style and I was nervous, with butterflies in my stomach.

“The smile after that first ride, something that has been talked about so much, was simply calm.”

All smiles @marcmarquez93#ValenciaTest pic.twitter.com/aphzC7ZxH3

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) November 28, 2023

Marquez’s Gresini move also means he is joining younger brother Alex in the same MotoGP team for the first time since 2020 at Repsol Honda, a partnership that was curtailed when Marc broke his arm at the opening round.

Speaking alongside Alex in their first appearance of the year as Gresini team-mates, during a press conference organised by Estrella Galicia 0,0 in Madrid, the #93 joked: “The team-mate is the first rival, but in this case it’s all a family matter!

“We’re both here for the competition, that comes from our genes. Logically, if I can beat him (Alex), so much the better, and if he can beat me, so much the better for him.

“The main thing is also to try to help each other as we have always done at home. Then on the track each one has his own technical crew and his own problems.

“It’s not even good to talk too much because sometimes a comment of mine may sound completely different to him, so we will continue as we have done so far, each one with his technical team and then helping each other at home as much as possible to prepare well for the race weekends.”

Marc has been without a win for the past two seasons, while Alex took two Sprint wins and two Grand Prix podiums in his debut Gresini campaign.

Both will ride year-old GP23 bikes this year.

The official Sepang test takes place o February 6-8 followed by a final official pre-season test in Qatar on February 19-20.

Marc Marquez’s Ducati race debut will then be held at the same Lusail circuit on the weekend of March 8-10.

That was quite a step, considering Morbidelli had been 103 points behind his then title leading team-mate at the same stage of 2022.

But their results then began to divulge again during the second half of this season.

While Quartararo went on to claim three podiums and tenth in the world championship, Morbidelli slipped to 13th and didn’t better his early-season fourth place in Argentina.

The final points tally for the M1 riders was 172-102 in Quartararo’s favour.

“This year I felt that I had a chance to be the best Yamaha and sincerely for the first half of the season we did well and were in that battle,” reflected Morbidelli, who was informed that Alex Rins would take his 2024 place during the summer break.

“But [things changed] in the second half of the season. Maybe the [Rins] announcement, maybe some other things that happened inside the team and so on.

“But Fabio I think was able to make an awesome job in the second half of the season. Practically flawless.”

Morbidelli felt the former MotoGP champion made the difference by squeezing just enough from the M1 to get directly into Qualifying 2 on a Friday.

“I think that just the other side [of the pit box] did a better job and were able to go from struggling to get into Qualifying 2 just as much as us in the first half of the season – when we were also able to outqualify Fabio – to stepping it up in the second half and we were not able to.

“Fabio’s been able to just make it to Qualifying 2 directly, do just enough on Friday to get into the top ten, and that made him do a hell of a second half of the season.

“We were not able to get directly into Qualifying 2 and we suffered with that, so that gap [between the Yamaha riders] spread out a bit more.

“But definitely I felt like I gave it a shot and I feel the speed, especially in race pace, was always there.

“But when you start 14th it’s very unlikely that you are going to catch up on a Fabio starting 5th, 6th or 7th.

“Anyway, I learned a lot and I was able to be fast [again] this year and that’s a good feeling.”

Former title runner-up Morbidelli, who had been just 19th in the 2022 world championship, was also the only rider to reach the finish of every Sprint and Grand Prix race this season.

The Italian, 29, will move to Pramac Ducati and ride the latest version of the title winning Desmosedici in 2024.

Although Honda broke its win drought with Alex Rins at COTA, it was one of only two GP podium finishes for the RCV this year.

Marquez’s own losing streak exceeded two years by the time he officially announced a split from Honda, days after claiming the factory’s second and final podium of the season in a rain-shortened Motegi race.

While engine output has traditionally been a Honda strength, Marquez echoed the comments of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in outlining how the shift to high downforce aero soaks up horsepower due to the extra drag.

“It’s been very difficult to fight against other riders without top speed,” Marquez said after being ranked 13th fastest through the speed trap during the penultimate Sprint of the season, in Qatar, which he finished in 11th place.

Those words seemed at odds with Marquez’s own comments during pre-season testing, when he had been in search of traction rather than top speed. But the explanation was the aero.

“[In pre-season testing] we were using very small aerodynamics. Now we have bigger aerodynamics, and less top speed,” he said. “So, of course, if you want to use the big aerodynamics, you need to have more horsepower.

“As a rider, I’m trying to do my best at the racetrack and I’m trying to give the best comments to Honda. I’m trying to advise them which is the direction for the future even if I leave [for Gresini] in one week.

“I try to say very precise comments and today I said to them that without top speed you cannot fight for a championship.

“Because every time we pass along a straight, I was losing one position. So like this it’s super difficult. They have a lot of work to do but they know, and I believe they can do it in the future.”

Another issue Marquez feels Honda must tackle is why the RC213V seemingly needs a tow to set a competitive lap time in qualifying.

“I will answer easy and honest: Alone I was one second slower. This bike with a slipstream becomes another bike,” Marquez stated.

“I understand that people say, ‘why is he following all the time?’ Although in the past many riders followed me and, if you are just focusing on yourself, they didn’t disturb me.

“But [in the case of the 2023 Honda] for example, a rider like John Mir that last year was with Suzuki and never looking for a slipstream, this year every practice is looking for a slipstream.

“It’s a point that Honda must improve for the future because you can save one weekend like this [by finding a tow]. But, for example, in Malaysia I didn’t find a good [tow] and then I started 20th.”

Luca Marini is taking over Marquez’s Repsol seat alongside Mir for 2024.