27/11/2023

Binder and Agius set course for 2024 with Valencia test

With a new rider pairing, the LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Team's Moto2 squad began preparations for the 2024 season on Monday after the Valencia Grand Prix at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, with Darryn Binder and newcomer Senna Agius testing extensively with the two major innovations for next year - Pirelli tyres and WP suspension elements.

Darryn Binder, who on Sunday put an injury-hit first Moto2 season behind him, was already looking to the future just one day later and gathered his first impressions on Pirelli tyres from the new tyre supplier for the Moto2 and Moto3 classes. However, this was not the only focus of today's test work, but also the new suspension elements from the Austrian company WP, which the team will be using from now on. The new grip characteristics meant a lot of experimentation in the three one-hour training sessions that the teams had at their disposal on another sunny day at the Valencia circuit. In the end, the South African, who began his second season with the German racing team on Monday, gave a positive summary of his first test work, which he will have the opportunity to further analyse on Wednesday at another test before the well-deserved winter break.

For the new regular rider in the LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Moto2 garage, Senna Agius, the Pirelli tyres were no complete unknown, as the 18-year-old already had the chance to take part in the Italian tyre manufacturer's Monday test in Barcelona in September as a replacement rider for the then injured Binder. Nevertheless, the Australian entered unfamiliar territory on his first official day as a full-time Moto2 World Championship rider and began to familiarise himself with his new crew and the new WP suspension. The newly crowned 2023 European Moto2 Champion did very well and as his team-mate he can also collect more important data for the coming season in two days on Wednesday.

Darryn Binder

"Overall, it was a pretty good day, I'm quite happy with how things went. It was the first time for me to ride on Pirelli tyres because unfortunately I missed the last test due to an injury. So, we rolled out this morning and all eyes were not just on Pirelli, because we also changed the suspension to WP. So, it was a bit of a combination to get first impressions. But I quickly felt comfortable and picked up where I left off yesterday, with the same lap times and so on. Most importantly, I had a lot of confidence in the tyres as they’re giving good feedback. So that means I can really understand where the limit is, or in other words, I felt safe. That was quite positive. During the day I made small improvements and one thing for sure is that we have a lot more grip at the rear now. But also, the front tyre has a lot more grip. But the rear is just amazing compared to before. So, our goal today was to tune the bike to that, especially with the braking, and also to adjust the engine braking so that the rear doesn't push the front too much. So, we played with all these things and made good progress. Unfortunately, I had a small crash when I stayed on the gas a little too long at a corny entry, which caused the front end to tuck. Fortunately, I'm fine and overall, I'm very happy. It's cool to have a little bit different tyres now. It will be interesting next year to see how they behave over the race distance because I feel like every time, we've kept the same tyre we've seen a little bit of drop. That's something I'm not used to, because the previous tyres were really stable, even if they didn't give super much grip at the beginning, but towards the end it was exactly the same. In any case, it's going to be interesting and so far, I've enjoyed it a lot. At the moment we are mainly working on getting the most out of the Pirelli. We have to try to stop the bike without the rear tyre pushing the front, because it has so much grip that I had a bit of chattering at the front. But overall, we are on the right track with these tyres."

Senna Agius

"It was a pretty good day, even though I had to deal with so many new things like a different crew, new tyres and a new chassis. It's nice to come in and have a good feeling, to be competitive or in other words to have a competitive feeling with the bike. We tried a lot of different combinations with the suspension and different tyre options. So, I think I can be very happy with my first official day in Moto2. Tomorrow we will have a day of rest and look at all the information we gathered today in order to have a solid last day of testing this year on Wednesday. A big thank you to the team and everyone involved for the warm welcome. I am very happy to be here, and I think we can say that we have done a good job on our debut. The most important thing is that I feel comfortable and ready to continue on Wednesday. I already knew the Pirelli from the Barcelona test last September, so the task now is to make this tyre work because next time we will race with. In September it was just about getting a quick feeling, because five days later we changed back to the old manufacturer. But I have the feeling that everything is working better now, because WP is here with the latest development in terms of the new suspension for us, which is also working well. But in my opinion, the second time I tried the Pirelli, they worked much better than the first time."

Valencia-Test – Monday Moto2

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