Andrea Iannone’s first verdict on how MotoGP bikes have changed

The last time Andrea Iannone started a Malaysian MotoGP At the weekend, back in 2019, he was 17th on Aprilia Gresini’s first practice sheet.

Fast forward five years and, without even having done any preliminary testing, the Italian turned heads by finishing ninth fastest at the start of his stint with the VR46 Ducati.

Admittedly, Iannone installed new soft front and medium rear tires – while most were sticking with used medium/hard tires – to start from last place on the schedule.

Either way, it was very impressive from Maniac considering it was only his 15th lap in the GP23.

Iannone finished 1.9 seconds behind defending champion Francesco Bagnai and ahead of Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori.

“Unbelievable,” Iannone said Friday night. “It’s a different bike, a different MotoGP. This is a completely different story.”

This new story includes improved aerodynamics, ride height control and the latest Michelin tires.

“It’s difficult to compare (with 2019), it’s a completely different story, a different motorcycle,” he explained.

“Now you have winglets, great aerodynamics. You are charging the tires too much. You put really a lot of pressure on.”

He added: “Braking point, entry and turn speed are the biggest differences.

“It’s incredible. It’s really hard to understand the limit.

“Every lap I try harder, I try harder, I try harder and I don’t feel the limit!

“It’s impressive. We need to go, go, go. Today I only did 25 laps, no test, no anything, it’s difficult.

“But I’m happy. I’m 1.9 seconds from Pecco. This is good!”

The 2016 Austrian Grand Prix winner said he had no problems adapting to the ride height and highlighted how stable the Ducati feels compared to 2019.

“It has more agility, more everything. It’s easier to drive. It’s less jumpy, more stable, so cornering becomes easier,” he said.

“The motorcycle is not nervous. Really smooth. Turns very well. As you approach (the turn), place your bike at an angle. Wow, you have no movement!

“In the past, if you made a mistake in choosing a pickup truck, you would go ‘wow, wow, wow’ (simulates the motorcycle rocking violently from side to side).

“It was difficult to control the torque. Now everything is perfect.”

The only area where the latest generation of prototypes have become more difficult is the physical force required when braking.

“At a stop, with these brakes… Destroyed, destroyed! It’s really a huge force,” he said.

“But I think on the first day, after all these years, a score of 59.6 is good. We’ll see tomorrow,” concluded Iannone, who won the race this season after a four-year anti-doping ban in WorldSBK.

Bagnaia stressed that Iannone’s performance compares very favorably with WorldSBK champion Alvaro Bautista’s performance in MotoGP at the Ducati factory in Sepang last year.

“I think Andrea did a really good job today,” Bagnaia said. “Given that he did not do any tests like Alvaro Bautista last year, but he did a better job because he had already completed a lap in 1 meter 59 seconds, without knowing anything about the rear ride height design, about our tires.

“So I think Andrea did a very impressive job today.”

Bautista, who later revealed he had suffered a shoulder injury, was also second from bottom on the timesheet during Friday practice last season but +2.547 seconds off the top with a time of 2m 0.370 seconds.