They used the year to learn riding a big twin... As I said in another thread: Most of the testriders are used to ride a four cylinder bike which revs up till 15 or 16000 rpm and has a smoother power development. It is not enough to ride a bike with a different motor characteristic some laps (and that's what all these riders do in these comparison tests: 5, perhaps 10 laps and then changing the bike... back to another four cylinder).
One of my really fast buddys bought a 1299 last year. 7 trackdays later he was still slower than before with his S1000RR. At the end of the season he gained about 2 seconds on his best laptime with the BMW. The Pani was his first Twin after riding screamers more than 12 years on the track.
Last year there was benchmark test between the 1199 R and the R1M in Germany. The riders were about 3 days on the track. The 1199 won with a small lead, was a little bit faster. The first two days, both rider were faster with the R1M.
