Danny Kent “really starting to gel with the R1”

After a partial 2023 campaign on a Honda, highlighted by a pair of podiums at Brands Hatch, the 2015 Moto3 world champion was keen to get to know his new team and bike.

Day one was spent familiarising himself with the R1 before the team introduced various parts over the following days.

“It’s been a great four days’ testing here in Spain, I’ve loved riding the McAMS Racing R1,” said Kent. “A strong relationship with a team is always positive and I feel like we’ve got off to a strong start there.

“I’ve done lots of laps on the bike this week and I’m really starting to gel with the R1; it’s starting to feel like my bike now.

“Overall, it’s been a very good test and I’m very happy so a huge thanks to Mar-Train for organising the test this winter as we’ve really benefitted from doing this.”

Kent is not the only new arrival at Mar-Train with Chris Anderson joining the squad as crew chief from the former BSB-winning Raceways McAMS Yamaha team.

“It’s been nice to get Danny on the bike again after Bishopscourt as there wasn’t a huge amount to learn there as the conditions weren’t great and we’ve built a whole new bike for this test,” Anderson said.

“We got through a lot of test parts to give us a bit of a direction for 2024 and learned what Danny likes, what he doesn’t like etc and how he works as a rider. Now we’ll head back to the workshop where we’ve a few things to work on as we get ready for 2024.”

With the BSB test ban starting on January 1 until April, the team’s next outing will be the official BSB test at Donington Park in early April.