Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi believes he can claw back some of Honda's advantage with the new seamless gearbox as although it isn't a laptime magic bullet, it has helped improve acceleration on the YZR-M1 at the Misano MotoGP round.
Rossi set the third quickest time in today's two free practice sessions and has nothing but good things to say about the new system - in particular the bike wheelies less so less electronic control is required, which makes acceleration better, an area where the RC213V has dominated this year.
"The gearbox is fantastic to use, is good for the rider, is a big help. I think is not a big improvement about laptime, about the top performance for one lap but is more stable in acceleration and the ride is less demanding and you can concentrate more on the line and try to bring the bike more to the limit," said Rossi, speaking at Misano.
"It is not a big difference but we improve a bit in acceleration which especially will be help in race distance because the bike is more easy to ride and in acceleration, you can put the bike more precise where you want for the next corner. The plan now is to use the gearbox from now until always.
"I think that if it is ok and our technician see no problem we continue to use this. I still have to work on setup as today we do some interesting things to improve the braking and the traction in acceleration which work well.
"The difference with the seamless is the electronics because the bike wheelie less so you can use less control under acceleration but the mechanical setting is same."