Front ride height devices are dead. Long live the age of aero.
That was the response of the MotoGP community at large following the conclusion of pre-season testing in Portimao this weekend. The feeling had certainly begun stirring long before, with the Sepang test giving us an inkling of what would be coming our way, but the second and final test has reiterated this idea. MotoGP is changing, and the start of this season is going to look vastly different to previous iterations (even forgetting the introduction of sprint races, which is unfortunately impossible).
The energy surrounding this change feels eerily similar to the introduction of winglets by Ducati back in 2016. Ducati led the charge and were the first to deliver winglets on their bikes, but what followed over the course of the season was nothing short of a revolution. Almost every manufacturer on the grid came up with their own aero designs and began implementing them in new and interesting ways, which in turn led to more changes on Ducati’s part as they tried to stay ahead of the pack. By the end of the season, the bikes on grid looked visibly alien to what we had begun the season with.
Winglets had a core issue surrounding them, however, in that they were deeply unsafe when it came to on-track rumbles between riders. Since winglets were attached separately to the motorcycles themselves, any kind of impact could snap them off and fling them across the track, which becomes hazardous to other riders. A swift banning took place, and the community breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the winglet’s era within MotoGP.
So it was with some surprise when Ducati returned the following year with something that looked suspiciously like winglets attached to their bike. The devices had been banned, so why where they presenting a motorcycle with an illegal part on board? The answer was one that seemed at the time to upset a number of paddock members: they had found a loophole in the rule book that allowed them to continue testing the same aerodynamic concepts that winglets had.
The thing that was banned in the winglet axeing was attachments to the bike that are outside of the main section of the bike’s frame, so Ducati simply took the winglets and integrated them into the bike’s frame instead. This way, the safety risks were lowered significantly, as the aero package was less able to come loose from the frame itself, so it was deemed appropriate. Once the rest of the grid got over their jealousy for Ducati figuring out the loophole before them, they got to work replicating the concept, and soon we were back at the point where every bike had aero attachments.
Had it not been for ride height devices, this would have likely been the source of most innovations over the years that followed, but the aero revolution was put on hold when Ducati introduced a hole-shot device to their factory bikes. This was a piece of tech that would change the fate of the sport for a great many years, and one that would inspire a myriad of innovation and changes. The ability to raise and lower a racing bike to ensure extra momentum through corners was a complete game-changer, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time.
But ride height devices – the front ones, at least – are banned in 2023, which brings us to the Sepang and Portimao tests and the present day. While mulling over the time between seasons, many members of the MotoGP community predicted that aero would be the main source of changes and innovations we would see in this year’s preseason. With ride height devices unlikely to change any time soon, it would give engineers an opportunity to take a harder look at the science behind MotoGP aero and see what development was still possible.
And boy, did we see innovation. Long, sweeping horizontal setups. Fat and low aeros designed to deliver downforce on the front of the bike. Rear aero in a variety of forms, from last year’s ‘stegosaurus’ package at Ducati to Yamaha’s wild box-shaped design. Aprilia brought the biggest surprises, with smaller aero pods sitting behind the main ones at the nose of the bike as well as lower positioned sets on the suspension of the bikes. Everywhere you looked, people were trying new additions to their bikes in an attempt to get the jump on their opponents.
Some worked better than others. Yamaha’s development led them in circles until Quartararo moved back to the 2022 design, which ended up being the best coupling with their improved 2023 engine. The rear box aero will likely never see the light of day, something that I am personally quite relieved about. Aprilia likely won’t start the season with all 4 aero packages attached to their bikes, but one has to assume that given the positive results of their testing at least a few of the new designs will stick.
What we do know is that the couch commentators were right – aero is the talk of the town for 2023. This is where we will see the majority of new ideas taking place, until they are either banned or usurped by a new piece of technology or design. After that, who knows? Engineers will continue to create new concepts and push the performance of the bikes to ever-higher levels. This is their task every year, and every time a rules change is made it simply breathes new life into their work and new possibility into the paddock at large.
Regardless, we were forewarned that this would be the year that aero would be revisited, where whacky and wild designs would steal the headlines and create new racing opportunities for the riders wielding them. That eventuality has come to pass, and we now wait with bated breath to see what it will do to a race weekend. The days are ticking down now. Let the aero revolution begin.
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