From Monday, the teams and riders of the MotoE World Championship 2023 will meet in Barcelona to take the new Ducati MotoE to the track for the second time. After the wet test a month ago in Jerez, this time, the riders of MotoE are hoping for three days of dry track.
On Monday, April 3, the riders of MotoE 2023 will be back on track on Ducati's new electric motorcycle, the V21L, this time in Barcelona, for the last test before the start of the Championship. The Circuit de Barcelona, in Catalonia, will host the three-day test of the fifth season of the MotoGP electric class. From Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 April, the teams involved in the MotoE World Championship will have five 15-minute sessions per day for a total of around 150 laps over the three days of testing.
Sessions are scheduled to start at 9:00, 11:10, 13:20, 15:30 and 17:45.
During the first tests at Jerez with the Ducati MotoE, Eric Granado, LCR E-Team rider, has already signed a time 4 tenths faster than the MotoE Spanish track record.
The main technical innovations of the Ducati MotoE
The characteristics of the new bike are very different from the MotoE used in previous seasons. First of all, the weight dropped to 225kg, about 20kg less than last year and almost 40kg less than the MotoE of 2019. This will greatly influence the dynamic behaviour of the bike, also thanks to the rear suspension with a progressive link and to the front fork, which reaches 125mm of displacement, 15mm more than last year, thanks to the particular shape of the battery.
The latter is designed in such a way as to leave sufficient space for the front wheel to move back during the most demanding braking, allowing for complete compression of the fork for a better bike's behaviour during braking and cornering.
Among the technical innovations of the new MotoE, the most important one is certainly the liquid cooling system of the battery. The latter weighs 110kg and has a capacity of 18kWh with an operating voltage of 800V. To maximize output, performance and capacity, a sophisticated cooling system was required to allow the battery to work in its optimal temperature range.
The main advantage of this system is that it controls the battery temperature during track sessions and recharging. This allows avoiding long pauses for cooling the battery between one phase and another and increasing the bike's uptime.
Another important novelty is the absence of the traditional rear brake.
On the Ducati MotoE, the rear brake is no longer mechanical, but 'electric'; the braking action is achieved through the electronic management of the motor. This system has two advantages: saving weight, around 1,6kg, and recovering energy by making the electric motor work like a generator when the rear wheel slows down.
Many confirmed riders and five new rookies in the MotoE 2023
The arrival of Ducati as sole manufacturer and the improvement of MotoE to the rank of World Championship has made the championship very attractive for riders, teams and sponsors.
Among the protagonists of the past seasons who have confirmed their participation in the MotoE 2023, there is the duo of the LCR E-Team, formed by Eric Granado and Miquel Pons, the two-time champion of the MotoE, Jordi Torres, the first winner of the MotoE, Matteo Ferrari and the veterans Mattia Casadei and Maria Herrera.
Dominique Aegerter, the winner of the 2022 season of the MotoE, will miss in 1. The Swiss rider won two FIM titles in the same season: the MotoE and the Supersport World Championship. This extraordinary performance earned him a promotion to the Superbike World Championship with the Yamaha R2023 of the GRT team. However, this new commitment is incompatible with the new MotoE World Championship, so the Dynavolt Intact GP team has found a new rider, or rather two, because, from XNUMX, the German team will line up two bikes, one assigned to Randy Krummenacher and one to Hector Garzò.
Garzò is back from a subdued 2022 with the Tech3 team, which for 2023 has preferred him Alessandro Zaccone, a rider returning to MotoE after a season in Moto2 with the Gresini Racing team. Alongside Zaccone, Hervé Poncharal's team will have the Japanese Hikari Okubo, who is leaving the Avant Ajo team with which he raced the previous two seasons in MotoE.
In addition to the LCR team, Gresini Racing also confirmed both of its riders: Matteo Ferrari and Alessio Finello. The Aspar team further renews its trust in Maria Herrera and brings to its box none other than Jordi Torres, the champion of the MotoE in 2020 and 2021. Torres reunites with Jorge “Aspar” Martínez's team with whom he raced in the World Championship between 2011 and 2014, and says goodbye to the Sito Pons team with which he raced the last three seasons of the MotoE. His place in the Pons Racing team has been assigned to the young Italian rookie Nicholas Spinelli, who will join Mattia Casadei, in his fifth season in MotoE.
Former Moto2 Champion Tito Rabat joins the riders of MotoE 2023
Whoever changes both of their riders is the Pramac Racing team. The Italian team has signed the former Moto2 World Champion, Tito Rabat, winner of the Spanish Superbike championship in 2022. The Spaniard will thus be the first rider to race with all three Ducati racing bikes: the Desmosedici, the Panigale and the MotoE. In team with Rabat, Pramac has chosen Luca Salvadori, a rider who has been among the protagonists of the Italian National 1000 championship for years. In addition to his activity as a rider, Luca Salvadori is a very well-known and appreciated youtuber and will certainly bring into the paddock of the World Championship his skills as a content creator.
The Avant Ajo team steps out of the MotoE and will focus on activities in the Moto2 and Moto3 championships. The Ajo team slot passes to the Italian team Sic58, which renews its trust in Kevin Zannoni and chooses Kevin Manfredi, in his second year in MotoE, at his side.
Andrea Mantovani and Mika Perez are the riders of the RNF MotoE team, led by Team Manager Ramon Forcada, famous for having supported riders such as Jorge Lorenzo, Franco Morbidelli and Andrea Dovizioso in MotoGP. Mantovani already has experience in MotoE, having raced in 2021 with the Gresini team and having competed in two GPs with Razali's team in 2022. The young Spaniard Mika Perez was the winner of the 2016 European Junior Cup Championship and runner-up two years later in the Supersport 300 World Championship.
Ducati MotoE
The test gallery of the MotoE in Jerez
The list of teams and riders of the MotoE World Championship 2023
LCR E-Team (riders: #51 Eric Granado – #77 Miquel Pons) (lcr.mc)
Tech3 E-Racing (riders: #61 Alessandro Zaccone – #78 Hikari Okubo) (tech3racing.frl)
FELO Gresini Racing MotoE (riders: #11 Matteo Ferrari – #72 Alessio Finello) (gresiniracing.com)
Pramac MotoE (riders: #53 Tito Rabat – #23 Luca Salvadori) (pramacracing.com)
Openbank Aspar Team (riders: #81 Jordi Torres – #6 Maria Herrera) (teamaspar.com)
Pons Racing Los 40 (riders: #40 Mattia Casadei – #29 Nicholas Spinelli)
Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse (riders: #21 Kevin Zannoni – #34 Kevin Manfredi) (sic58squadracorse.it)
Dynavolt Intact GP (riders: #3 Randy Krummenacher – #4 Hector Garzò) (intactgp.de)
RNF MotoE team (riders: #19 Andrea Mantovani – #8 Mika Perez)
MotoE World Championship
The calendar of the MotoE 2023
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