Miller and Oliveira Leave Sepang with Smiles as Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Looks Ahead to Second Test in Thailand

The Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team has successfully concluded its inaugural winter test at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, marking a significant milestone in their new partnership with Yamaha. Over the course of five days, including both the shakedown and the three-day official test sessions, the team focused on familiarizing themselves with the 2025 YZR-M1 bike and integrating with Yamaha’s Japanese engineers and technicians, as riders Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira showed a rapid adaptation to their new machinery.

Traditionally, the final morning of testing at Sepang is characterized by cooler temperatures, providing optimal conditions for riders to push their machines to the limit, with everyone trying the time attack, also to better understand the bike’s limit. But at the same time, today was again a day of trying new things and learning without making any mistakes and minimizing unnecessary risks. Miller concluded the final day with the 12th fastest time, with an innocuous slide at turn 4, while Oliveira secured the 17th position, with the two of them concluding their testing around midday.

This initial test has been deemed a success, fostering a strong rapport among the Pramac Racing personnel, Yamaha staff, and the riders. These days were instrumental in evaluating new materials introduced by Yamaha and in determining the future direction for bike development and setup.

Looking ahead, the team is now heading to Thailand for the official MotoGP presentation on Sunday, February 9th, in Bangkok. Subsequently, they next stop will be Buriram for the second and final official MotoGP test scheduled for February 12-13. The Chang International Circuit will also be home of the opening round of the 2025 MotoGP season, with the Grand Prix of Thailand scheduled for the weekend of March 2nd.

“Testing on the same track for a few days allowed us to improve the feeling with the bike- which was good from the beginning, but this allowed us to play around a little bit with different settings, trying to understand the reaction of the bike, how is going to change and so on. Having the shakedown was really handy for us, we have been able to get through that test and try a lot of material. So it‘s been good. I ran out a little bit of time this morning, when the track conditions were cooler, as we had a couple of little things to test and by the time we got that done it was quite late. And then in my second time attack I managed to dump the front, it‘s one of those things of finding the limit at turn 4. I knew I was coming in pretty hot, I tried anyway and had a slide. But in general, I am happy with the performance of the bike, we have a lot of room for improvment and have a clear view of where we want to go. But to be already in the low 1‘57” can make us happy. It t will be interesting to see how the bike reacts in Buriram, which is quite a different track.” — Jack Miller, Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP, Sepang Test: 12th – 1’57.452

“This first test of the season has been great. We leave Sepang with a lot of information, more experience, and good feelings. I am a bit disappointed because today I missed the lap time I was hoping to achieve by the end of the test. However, it’s good to know that in a few days we will be heading to Thailand, so the work we’ve done can be consolidated on another track, and we hope this base setup can be productive at another circuit as well. Having the opportunity to fully share data between the four of us is great. Fabio is making the difference, and that helps everyone understand what we need as we prepare to face the season.” — Miguel Oliveira, Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP, Sepang Test: 17th – 1’57.960

“My approach to these days of testing was very simple: we started from a blank sheet of paper, I did not want to have any expectations. But after 5 days of hard work here in Sepang, I can say that I am not only very happy with the way things have gone, but I am also positively impressed: by the huge effort that Yamaha has shown during these days, by how well the people of Prima Pramac Racing and those of Yamaha have merged, by the great feedback from our riders in discovering the YZR-M1. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but to start like this will give us all much more enthusiasm to try to get back to the top. Yamaha has a great desire to win again and so do we. It will certainly take time, but the direction is clear. These days have been crucial in understanding the direction we need to go from a technical point of view, and I think we have a much clearer idea of what we need. The exchange between our team and the Monster Energy Yamaha team is constant, we are two teams but we work and feel like one. And now a few well-deserved days off for the guys in our team before we head to Buriram for the last official test. I am very excited to see how we perform there.” — Gino Borsoi, Team Director, Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP

source: Yamaha Racing