Who is going well and who is in trouble after MotoGP Sepang test

This week’s Sepang test provided the first meaningful indications of where MotoGP’s five manufacturers stand heading into the new season.

While rain curtailed running on Wednesday afternoon, the track offered high grip levels for much of the test, allowing several riders to complete sprint race simulations and gather valuable performance data.

This year’s pre-season structure has also played a role. Unlike 2025, when the two official tests were scheduled close together, MotoGP has spaced them further apart in 2026, giving manufacturers an opportunity to analyse findings from Malaysia and introduce final refinements and possibly some new components at Buriram.

Even so, after three days of running in Sepang, most riders already have a clear sense of what to expect from their bikes when the season gets under way.

With sweeping regulation changes coming in 2027, it’s important for each manufacturer to start the upcoming season on a solid footing so they can switch their attention to 850cc bikes early.

Ducati: The best gets even better

The best bike on the MotoGP grid has just got better

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While the consensus was that Ducati would remain MotoGP’s benchmark in 2026, few expected the Italian marque to make such a clear step forward over the winter, especially after several false starts in recent years.

Perhaps the most impressive part was that all four GP26 riders came away satisfied with the bike’s performance and characteristics. Francesco Bagnaia all but confirmed that his 2025 troubles were behind him, with improved braking stability giving him back the confidence he had been missing. The story was similar for VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio, who reported a much more consistent front feeling from his Desmosedici - the exact area that had limited him last year.

Overall pacesetter Alex Marquez said that the bike felt similar to the GP24 he rode last year. Given that it remains arguably the most complete and versatile package Ducati has built, that remark can only be a good thing. That Spaniard has always gone well around Sepang, but the fact that he was able to go fastest in his race simulation despite making mistakes and pushing beyond the limit on his opening lap was an ominous sign.

As for his brother Marc Marquez, it was also an encouraging start to proceedings. Sepang has never been his best track and, while he is now fit to ride a MotoGP bike again after a long injury layoff, his shoulder tested his endurance across the three days of testing. In that context, his performance was more than respectable, even though he believes he has work to do ahead of Buriram.

Ducati also evaluated various aero configurations over the week, and it appears the riders have a firm understanding of the direction they are likely to take.

Had Fermin Aldeguer also been in action - absent due to a training injury - it would have amounted to a perfect test for the Bologna factory.

Aprilia: Keeping its cards close to its chest

Aprilia tried to run a low-key test to keep the true extent of its gains under wraps

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This would have been a rather low-key test for Aprilia had the team not bolted on a fresh set of tyres for Marco Bezzecchi and sent him out on track in the final 30 mins of the last day. The late push vaulted him to second on the timesheets and just over a tenth shy of Alex Marquez, even though the track conditions were no longer at their peak.

It’s fair to say Aprilia has been notably guarded about what it had found over the winter, despite bringing the most aggressive aero package of any manufacturer on the grid. Bezzecchi was particularly reluctant to discuss the differences between the various aero trims he sampled, saying that his bosses didn’t want him to share such details. Even his final-day sprint simulation was done on used rubber, which meant his average time - which was nine tenths slower than Alex Marquez’s - wasn’t representative of the RS-GP’s real potential.

That said, Lorenzo Savadori did let it out that Aprilia has made small gains in every area, a view broadly echoed by Bezzecchi and team CEO Massimo Rivola. The message was one of evolution rather than revolution, but stable regulations have left no room for large performance jumps in MotoGP.

Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez struggled to extract pace out of the bike on a single lap, but seemed confident about the race pace, which is a good sign for last year's Australian GP winner.

It’s important to note that Sepang has historically been one of the weakest tracks for Aprilia. Just over three months ago at the Malaysian GP, none of its riders qualified inside the first four rows, while 10th place was the best it could achieve in the main race. Considering that, and the fact that the team starts 2026 from a far more stable technical base than it did 12 months ago, things are looking good for Aprilia.

Aprilia will now hope to have a fit and firing Jorge Martin to add to its attack in Thailand, after the 2024 world champion sat out the Sepang test to recover from recent surgeries - a hangover from his wretched first year at the Noale-based manufacturer.

Honda: Big gains but can it catch KTM and Aprilia?

Honda was able to confirm gains made from the end of 2025 and over the winter

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Honda’s primary objective over the winter was clear: build on the momentum from a more competitive end to 2025 and carry that form into the new campaign. For a manufacturer that had spent several seasons in the doldrums, simply confirming that its trajectory remained upward was an important milestone.

Honda chiefs haven’t been hesitant to admit that their engineers have managed to make “big progress” over the winter, turning the RC213V into a lighter and more powerful machine. Improvements in the bike can be seen across the board, but one key weakness remains: a lack of grip. It is an issue that has dogged Honda for years and has wide-reaching consequences, from corner exit performance to tyre life over race distance.

Ironically, this week’s Sepang test might have masked some of that deficit, as the weather conditions in February left the track with unusually high grip for much of the test. Sepang has also tended to flatter the RC213V historically - Joan Mir scored a podium here last year - and the Japanese manufacturer benefitted from extensive private testing it carried out in Sepang last year under the concession system.

While Ducati remains far out of reach, the key question is whether it can reasonably close the gap to KTM and Aprilia this season. This would require the Japanese marque to regularly finish inside the top five, but chasing that consistency should be its next goal after the way it ended the 2025 season.

But to make that step, Honda needs to be firing on all cylinders, and at the moment, LCR rider Johann Zarco is still the weak link in the line-up. The Frenchman, who carried Honda during its worst phase in 2024 and early 2025, is still struggling to rise to the same level as Mir and Luca Marini, with balance issues leaving him off the pace.

KTM: Aggressive but Acosta isn’t fully convinced

KTM also produced encouraging signs in Sepang, while hinting at more to come, but will it be enough?

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Maverick Vinales wasn’t exaggerating when he described the 2026 RC16 as ‘worlds apart’ from its predecessor. The intensive winter push at Mattighofen appears to have delivered meaningful gains, with riders reporting a clear step forward in the feedback they are getting from the bike.

For Vinales, his early headline time on Tuesday which was good enough for third, was a more representative indicator of his potential than his final position. A mid-test switch to an alternative specification disrupted his rhythm and left him further down the order than where he would have finished had he remained on his favourite bike.

There were encouraging signs elsewhere in the KTM camp, too. Enea Bastianini reported that the factory has made inroads into the chattering issues that plagued its 2025 campaign, while Brad Binder also made some progress after starting the test with the exact same bike as last season.

Ultimately, Pedro Acosta remains the reference point for KTM, and the 21-year-old gave out a positive but realistic tone after the test. He praised the intensity of the factory’s winter efforts and acknowledged that the work is translating into tangible gains on track. At the same time, he was realistic enough to admit that the RC16 is still a work in progress and KTM’s position in the pecking order remains unclear.

The general opinion is that KTM still hasn’t fully fixed some weak points of the bike, despite paying special attention to those areas for the first time in over a year. Acosta also suffered a weird problem on his race sim, which he wasn’t willing to elaborate on.

That being said, it was clear from Acosta’s comments that both he and KTM hadn’t showcased their true potential in the Sepang test. The Spaniard made it clear that maximising track time and avoiding unnecessary crashes took priority over chasing ultimate lap times, especially at a stage of testing when spare parts remain limited. Indeed, KTM, like all manufacturers, was still trying to evaluate different parts and develop a better understanding of what it needs to bring forward. With that in mind, the six-tenth gap Acosta faced to Alex Marquez over the long run must be taken with a pinch of salt.

Yamaha: Disaster averted but difficult times ahead

Alex Rins, Yamaha Factory Racing

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Yamaha appears to be in deep trouble heading into the new season, even though it managed to avoid what could have been a complete disaster for the brand and its new V4 project. Developing what is effectively an all-new bike was always going to be an enormous task, and expectations were already mixed after Augusto Fernandez’s wildcard outings last season. But engine blowouts for Fabio Quartararo and Toprak Razgatlioglu - and Yamaha’s subsequent decision to skip Wednesday’s running for safety reasons - highlighted the scale of challenge it faces this year.

Thankfully, Yamaha’s status as a Group D manufacturer allowed it to take part in last week’s Sepang shakedown, giving its race riders some crucial mileage before engine issues set the alarm bells ringing. Most of its riders - Quartararo included - had already carried out the bulk of their scheduled programme before the call came to suspend the running, so the loss of track time hurt less than it might have. However, caution remained the priority after Yamaha returned on track on Thursday, and the factory instructed its riders to limit mileage and avoid practice starts to keep the engine safe.

Alex Rins has since revealed that Yamaha will bring new engines to Buriram, which should allow riders to test the bike freely again. However, performance remains a major area of concern, and the M1 will continue to struggle on straights with an underpowered engine until an upgraded version arrives early in the campaign.

Quartararo’s situation adds another layer of difficulty. The Frenchman was forced to withdraw from the final two days of the test after injuring his finger in a crash, leaving Yamaha without its reference rider. Given how far ahead he was of the brand’s other riders last season, Yamaha desperately needs his input in the Buriram test to finalise the bike it will race in the Thai GP.

Quartararo sat out the final two days of the Sepang test due to a finger injury sustained in a crash

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