Folger should be back to "100 percent" fitness by Christmas

Folger enjoyed a promising rookie season with Tech 3 Yamaha before he was forced to withdraw from the final four races of the year due to an illness that was later diagnosed as Gilbert's syndrome.

The 24-year-old also missed official post-season testing in Valencia and private Yamaha testing in Sepang, where Johann Zarco was Tech 3's sole representative on both occasions.

However, Poncharal says Folger should be back to full strength by the end of next month, and thus will be able to take part in the first official 2018 test at Sepang from January 28-30.

"He needs time to rest, and I have been told that he will be 100 percent by Christmas, New Year time, which means he should be 100 percent for the first test at Sepang at the end of January," said Poncharal.

"We know what is happening with Jonas. Since 2011, so many many years nobody really understood why he was having so many up and down results, Moto3, Moto2 and this year also.

"We are happy and he is happy because he can put a name to his problem and he can now know what to do to cure it."

Poncharal added that his team is "impatient" to see him on the bike again as the in-form Folger is an exciting prospect, who even impressed rookie sensation and teammate Zarco.

"We are impatient to see exactly how he is because we are told, we are told, but we want to see him on the bike and see the laptimes," he added.

"We know when Jonas is on form, mentally and physically, just remember Sachsenring [where Folger finished second to Marc Marquez].

"Johann was so impressed with Jonas racing at Sachsenring. He told me this guy is unbelievable and there are places and there are times I can't do what he is doing.

"So we talked a lot about Johann [this year], but Jonas is another great guy and I really hope we can take him next year to what we did with Johann in 2017."