How good was this year’s MotoGP season? That is a rhetorical question. It was one of the best I can remember, and it just got better as the year went on. The fact the Marc Márquez wrapped up the title with three rounds remaining didn’t detract from the excitement of the series. If anything, it was such a great year that Márquez winning the title often played second fiddle to the spectacle being delivered on track. Márquez himself raced as hard at the end of the season as he did at the beginning. When the curtain came down on the 2016 championship many, including yours truly, found ourselves so hungry for more that the recent end-of-season official test at Valencia became as exciting as a round of the series. At one point I was receiving minute-by-minute updates on my phone from a friend glued to her computer screen watching the practice sessions live.

The most enjoyable part of an end of season test is seeing riders on new bikes and in unfamiliar surroundings for the first time. Lorenzo’s Yamaha has always looked like an extension of his body. Early pictures of him on the all-black Ducati at Valencia look like a poor attempt at Photoshop; something just does not seem right. It will only get worse when we see him in full Ducati livery. I wonder how many times he will find himself heading to the Yamaha motorhome instead of the Ducati bus before he breaks the habit.  The good news is we only have a few months to wait until the start of the 2017 season to finally have our questions about the Lorenzo/Ducati partnership answered, but who’s counting?

That’s another rhetorical question.