As we mentioned in yesterday’s article, this weekend’s MotoGP testing at Catalunya will provide a very interesting preview to next year’s MotoGP series. The key man to watch is Alex Barros . . . the same man who beat Valentino Rossi twice last year on the same equipment. Both Rossi and Barros were on Honda V-5s at the time, while Barros has moved to Yamaha and its YZR-M1.
Barros has been breaking lap records on his new Yamaha during recent testing, and he says the Yamaha is now better than last year’s Honda. Has the Honda improved as well? It would appear so as both Rossi and Max Biaggi (who, ironically enough, moved from Yamaha to Honda) have been very fast, as well.
Rossi and Barros are not only proven winners on four-stroke MotoGP machinery, they are on the two most highly-developed machines. Everyone else has been playing catch up, and this weekend’s testing will tell us just how far the competition has come to compete at the same level as Honda and Yamaha in 2003.
Unless another team surprises, however, expect Barros, Rossi and Biaggi to set the pace at Catalunya, with Barros’ performance the best indicator of whether Yamaha can compete straight-up with Honda in 2003.
