---
title: "New chassis gives Rabat much-needed confidence boost"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2016/11/16/new-chassis-gives-rabat-much-needed-confidence-boost/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "MotoGP News"
published: "2016-11-16T18:42:38Z"
modified: "2016-11-16T18:43:55Z"
---

# New chassis gives Rabat much-needed confidence boost

Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda’s Tito Rabat says that he is heading into the winter break with renewed confidence after a successful couple of days of testing in Valencia on an updated RC213V.

The Spanish rider was handed a new chassis from HRC to test, the same one Cal Crutchlow has been riding since the British Grand Prix. Rabat completed 108 laps across Tuesday and Wednesday, improving on his best lap time from day one by six tenths of a second down to a 1m31.9s. Though leaving him 18th on the time sheets and nine tenths away from teammate Jack Miller, the confidence the new chassis gave him was massive.

Not only was the chassis working for him, he praised the efforts of his Marc VDS crew in getting the bike working better for him. This allowed him to set a fast lap time and then consistently match it, something he claims he was unable to do at any point this season.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2016/11/614794100.jpg)

“I’m really happy after these two days with the new chassis, which brought some big improvements for me, but also with my new crew who are really working well together to get the bike working better for me,” he said.

“In terms of the lap times I made my best time alone and was able to repeat it consistently, which has been something I haven’t been able to do before this season.”

He admits that he and the team still have a lot of work left to do during the pre-season next year, but heads home for the winter delighted with the progress made this week after a horrendous debut season in the premier class for the Spaniard.

“Of course, there is still a lot of work to do when we resume testing next year, but the importance of going into the winter break with confidence cannot be underestimated and this test has restored a lot of the confidence that a difficult season had robbed me of. Overall I couldn’t be happier with the significant step forward made here in Valencia.”