{"id":20386,"date":"2016-11-14T17:48:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T17:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/2017-testing-begins-in-valencia\/"},"modified":"2016-11-14T17:48:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T17:48:13","slug":"2017-testing-begins-in-valencia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/2017-testing-begins-in-valencia\/","title":{"rendered":"2017 testing begins in Valencia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2016 MotoGP\u2122 World Championship may be over, but bikes are already back on track at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana on Tuesday and Wednesday – for the first test sessions of the 2017 season, from 10am to 5pm local time (GMT +1).<\/p>\n

The future is coming and it looks like this: a major reshuffle across the premier class, banned winglets, and a new manufacturer \u2013 as well as the usual, never-ending push for progress in the world\u2019s fastest motorcycle racing Championship.<\/p>\n

The key draw for most will be wearing red: Jorge Lorenzo is set to get his first taste of Ducati on Tuesday, as the \u2018Spartan\u2019 leaves Movistar Yamaha for the Borgo Panigale factory team. Maverick Vi\u00f1ales is the man in to replace the outgoing 5-time World Champion alongside Valentino Rossi at Yamaha \u2013 with Andrea Iannone completing the top draw shuffle as he switches Ducati for the Team Suzuki Ecstar seat vacated by Vi\u00f1ales.<\/p>\n

\"johann-zarco\"<\/a>Graduation is also on the cards for many: reigning intermediate class Champion Johann Zarco leads those on the move up, with key 2016 Moto2\u2122 rivals Alex Rins, Jonas Folger and Sam Lowes also all making the leap. Lowes will join former Suzuki rider Aleix Espargaro at Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, as Rins takes the older Espargaro brother\u2019s place with the Hamamatsu factory.<\/p>\n

Zarco and Folger will continue their rivalry from Moto2\u2122 in close quarters as they move to MotoGP\u2122, taking over from Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith at Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Espargaro and Smith maintain their relationship as teammates \u2013 but moving to Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.<\/p>\n

After a year of testing with an impressive line-up of names, the Austrian factory line up full-time in 2017 with 2013 Moto2\u2122 World Champion Espargaro and MotoGP\u2122 podium finisher Smith. Following their first real run alongside their competition with Mika Kallio at the helm for a wildcard in the 2016 season finale – hampered by a technical fault – the Austrian factory are now a full time entrant and will have comparative data from the test sessions for the first time. The Moto3\u2122 frontrunners will be looking to hit the ground running in their quest to win yet more titles \u2013 this time in the premier class.<\/p>\n

Repsol Honda Team\u2019s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, along with Movistar Yamaha MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and Ducati Team\u2019s Andrea Dovizioso, will also be straight back to work for the new season: more ready than ever to pick up where they left off. With four of the top six riders in the 2016 standings not moving team, consistency could play to their advantage.<\/p>\n

After a year of the new Michelin tyres and standard spec electronics packages in the MotoGP\u2122 class, each factory will be going into the season with more data than last year – and more idea of how the pack was shuffled.<\/p>\n

Ducati, Suzuki and Aprilia are still on the hunt for the pace of the frontrunning two Japanese factories, Honda and Yamaha, with Suzuki making huge gains in 2016 and looking to continue them. Aprilia, who have tested in competition throughout this season, have also had a fantastic curve of progress \u2013 with both factories looking to their new line-ups to continue the trend and find those final steps.<\/p>\n

Ducati are the factory closest to their goals. After the arrival of Andrea Dovizioso in 2013 and Luigi Dall\u2019Igna in 2014, the Borgo Panigale factory have taken huge steps forward in 2016 in their quest to return to the top \u2013 including winning their first two races since 2010. Winglets, banned for 2017, will be an interesting part of their puzzle after Ducati proved the frontrunners in the winglet war \u2013 but testing will initially begin with the winglets remaining, to enable back-to-back comparison.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2016 MotoGP\u2122 World Championship may be over, but bikes are already back on track at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana on Tuesday and Wednesday – for the first test sessions of the 2017 season, from 10am to 5pm local time (GMT +1). The future is coming and it looks like this: a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[893,894],"tags":[211,604,149,466],"class_list":["post-20386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-en","category-sin-categoria-en","tag-jorge-lorenzo","tag-maverick-vinales","tag-motogp","tag-test"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.circuitricardotormo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}