Maverick Viñales knows what his objectives are for these two days of testing in Qatar, with a big decision to be made about the aerodynamic package he will have and a very specific work on the starts.
Before the start of these last days of testing before the start of the championship, the rider talked about what he will work on above all:
– For me, of course, the team has some focuses and I have others, obviously we both want to be as prepared as possible. Aerodynamics is very important and we have to make the decision to have a package because we have to homologate, so that’s the biggest thing we have to do. As for the rest, I think the bike is working very well and I just need to work a little on the settings, the engine and the electronics, because it seems very different from last year, but that’s just a mapping, so it’s easy, something we can do during the weekend. For me, the starts are very important. We haven’t improved, so that’s my goal, the biggest one of this Qatar test, to finish with a good feeling in the starts.
About the work that needs to be done regarding the aerodynamic package, Viñales said right away: ‘Two days, it’s about seeing what you like or what you don’t like. One thing I like about Qatar is that it will be very windy, it will put everything in crisis, everything, and that’s very good.’
If all the bikes in 2024 are going to end up with the same aerodynamic packages, the Spanish rider said: ‘I don’t think so, because it depends a lot on how you ride the bike. Probably me and Miguel [Oliveira] will be very similar, Aleix [Espargaró] will be different, but we’ll see. Honestly, I don’t know, we are free to choose, so I don’t know.’
Destacando nuevamente los arranques, el #12 fue claro: ‘Tenemos que mejorar. Comenzamos bien, pero sabemos lo importante que es llegar a la primera curva en primer o segundo lugar, por lo tanto, para mí, es la prioridad y, después de eso, depende de mí. Es en la moto, tenemos que mejorar la moto. Tenemos que dar un paso adelante’.
