Guenther Steiner's arrival as a MotoGP team boss has created a fascinating experiment in placing a seasoned Formula 1 decision-maker in grand prix motorcycle racing - and his team's rider line-up will be the biggest and most visible expression of this experiment.

Though the decisions over who will ride for Steiner's Tech3 team - which his group formally took over in the previous off-season - are being made in conjunction with manufacturer partner KTM, it is clear Steiner's preferences and assessments will be playing a major role in the outcome.

Steiner was generally reticent in his time as the Haas F1 team principal to take on a rookie - also because of the different financial pressures that existed on Haas, with maximising payouts for its constructors' finish crucial to its continued existence and prosperity. MotoGP doesn't work like that, and Steiner has made it repeatedly clear he sees real additive value in introducing a rookie to his line-up in 2027.

But how does he decide which one? And how does he settle on the identity of the experienced team-mate, who should spearhead the team in 2027 and also act as a relevant benchmark for the rookie?

When The Race asked Steiner about this and pointed to the lack of built-up knowledge over MotoGP's rider landscape that he will have enjoyed when it came to F1's driver pool in the past, he joked: "Bet you think, 'You know f**k all about this!' Yeah, thank you!"

He then acknowledged that he is naturally having to lean more on others with more of that built-up knowledge.

"You speak with as many people as you think you should speak with and get information together and make up your own mind," he said. "Because for me just saying, 'He told me this and now it's wrong', in the end I'm responsible. And I have to sit in front of you saying, if it goes wrong, why it went wrong.

"And you need to be honest about it, you know? Also in F1, you have got these [talent] scouts, some of them are very good, you know? There's very good people. [Whereas] I think this industry is not as sophisticated.

"There is a lot of, 'I know this guy, therefore I push him'. And you have to weed the politics and the bulls**t out."

The particular limitations of the MotoGP formula when it comes to talent scouting are inherently obvious, too.

A modern F1 team has the tools, funding and opportunities to put a driver through an extensive 'trial' of sorts without them turning a lap in racing conditions.

These junior drivers will run countless laps in extremely sophisticated simulators (which MotoGP has no equivalent of whatsoever), participate in test days with older cars (which MotoGP does not do), and drive in the mandatory rookie free practice sessions during actual F1 weekends and in the traditional end-of-season rookie test.

Introducing such a test to MotoGP is something Steiner said he "never thought about" but does reckon "wouldn't hurt".

"For sure it would help to paint a picture," he said. "All this stuff helps. You cannot say that would be the solution to find out if he's good or not. But I think it would be actually not a bad thing, also for the kids in Moto2. As an opportunity, to show, instead of just saying, 'You don't have any evidence how I can do, because you cannot put me on the bike'.

"Put him on the bike. You learn also how the people work. It wouldn't be a bad thing."

Technically, nothing really stops MotoGP teams from doing exactly that independently of an official test - but that is a massive rarity. Moto2 riders, who represent the vast majority of MotoGP rookie prospects, occasionally get a short MotoGP runout as a reward, or can get called up to a test as an injury replacement, but (unlike their Formula 2 counterparts) are usually too busy and too bound by their existing Moto2 contractual arrangements and title hopes. A true MotoGP test also carries a much higher injury risk.

But Steiner is convinced the value of such opportunities is not the be-all and end-all.

"Also in F1, until you put these guys in an F1 car in a race, you don't really know. And you need to go back a long time.

"Therefore, I say, the scouts, they see these people coming up. Also, their character, their personality, all that counts as well. How they deal with difficult situations. And that is a lot less sophisticated here than in F1."

So how is Steiner himself dealing with it at his first try?

"I try to make a picture for myself. Will it be a perfect picture? Maybe not. Because of what you said, this is not what I did the last 20 years or the last 30 years, you know?" he said.

"But again, I think I can judge what people say. And then just come together and obviously I can look at results.

"And, you know, I've got people actually helping me. Analysts, which normally do financial analysis - they do a proper analysis of the riders, what they did before. And that helps you.

"You cannot base your decision only on that one. But it helps you to create a picture. And again, will I get it right? I don't know. Hopefully!"