“The new bike is not enough to fight for the highest positions”
BARCELONA, 21 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
MotoGP rider Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) has assured that in the unprecedented Indian Grand Prix this weekend and in the remainder of the World Championship he will use the 2023 Honda and not the 2024 prototype that he used in the test. Misano, since he believes that the possible improvements of one tenth are not enough to be at the top and prefers to focus on trying to improve with the current bike.
“We are going to start with the same bike from the Misano race, the one that left the best feeling in the test. We also do not have the same riding style in a test, in the afternoon and with more rubber on the track, which can help you. “I’m not going to use the 2024 bike for the rest of the season,” he said at the official press conference.
Márquez acknowledged that the new prototype had “some interesting things,” but not enough. “The performance was the same or in my case something worse. We are going to continue with what we know. If I have to try a couple of things for the future I will do it, but for the moment I focus on what I have,” he reiterated.
The one from Cervera revealed that both he and Nakagami prefer the 2023 bike and that tester Stefan Bradl and his teammate Joan Mir preferred the new one. “If you prefer the new one and you finish in the first positions, it can be understood, but that is not the case,” he noted.
“What I say is that it is not enough to fight for the highest positions next year. It may be a little better, but we are not looking for a tenth but rather six or seven per lap, and that is where we have to introduce the change “I don’t mind riding a motorcycle a tenth or so faster, because we need a lot more and we are going to continue working to improve,” he asked Honda.
“There were some differences between the current bike and the new one in the riding position, but there was no difference in terms of performance or lap time. It was the same. This is where we have to improve, especially in performance at the start of the race. the curve, because at the entry level we are not doing bad. From the middle to the exit, which is where the lap times come from, is where we have to improve,” he argued.
On the other hand, he acknowledged that Misano’s race was “truly positive.” “It’s strange to say it like that because we finished seventh, but the pace in part of the race was quite good. I was able to ride at that pace but using a lot of energy, at the end I felt very tired and decided to drop a little and finish the race. This is the mentality in the second part of the season, but here perhaps in some lap we can show that the speed is there,” he predicted.
As for the Buddh International Circuit, the track that hosts the new Indian Grand Prix this weekend, he was cautious. “It is one of the circuits that at the layout level, when walking it, seems quite good and we will see tomorrow in the MotoGP if the grip is good,” he said.