At the end of the final Grand Prix of this season [November 27], teams and drivers of the Moto2 and Moto3 Championships stayed for an extra day at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain, for the first official 2024 test with Pirelli tyres, following a private test carried out with positive results at the beginning of September in Barcelona, Spain.
This will be the final day of testing this year before next season, which will officially inaugurate the Pirelli era in Moto2 and Moto3. The next official tests will take place in Jerez de la Frontera from February 28 to March 1, 2024, before the first Grand Prix in Qatar.
The tires available to the riders for the Valencia test are the same ones already used in Barcelona, both in terms of sizes and compounds. These are the Diablo Superbike slicks and the Diablo Rain wet tires.
“Barcelona was a first private test and it took place in ‘plug & play’ conditions, that is, without being able to set the bike up as best as possible given that the teams and riders were still in the middle of their respective championships,” said Giorgio Barbier, motorcycle racing director at Pirelli.
“However, the feedback was very positive and in that case the objective was, above of all, to verify whether the sizes and compounds we selected were the right choice. In this sense, Barcelona was an excellent proving ground given that it is a rather demanding circuit for the tyres.”
“Now we have the chance to carry out the first official test for 2024, in this case once the Championship has concluded and on a track with different characteristics: short straights, except for the start/finish one, and many rather slow corners ridden in low gears. A track that is not particularly demanding, but narrow, and that often sees the riders in ‘lean’. It will be a good opportunity to check once more our tyre performance – given that in Valencia too we will have exactly the same options already used in the first test, to start in 2024 our first season as sole suppliers of the Moto2 and Moto3 Championships in the best possible way.”
