Cal Crutchlow, a new Yamaha Tech3 rider for MotoGP next season has begun the preparation for his debut with M1 on MotoGP after a private test session at Japan.
“The M1 felt a lot smaller than my Yamaha R1 superbike,” he said. “I actually found the positioning more comfortable than the WSB machine. There is a lot of power but it feels very useable, it felt very different to a production based machine in terms of its delivery.
“In the wet we used the normal steel brakes but when it started to dry I had a chance to try the carbon ones which were cool, I managed to get quite comfortable with them. I found the chassis very stiff, it was really easy to change direction and the electronics were really different, even more advanced than the high level I'm used to in Superbike!
“It was a shame the weather wasn't great so I wasn't able to push to the bike's full potential, I'm really looking forward to the Valencia test so I can get back on it and give it a proper work out!”