MotoGP | Alex Marquez: “The difference between GP23 and GP24 is more noticeable in the Sprint”

The debate over the difference between the Desmosedici GP24 used by the factory Ducati riders and the GP23 used by satellite riders, including Gresini Racing brothers Alex and Marc Marquez, looks set to never end.

While some riders consider the difference between the two bikes too big, others do not consider it so.

Alex Marquez, who finished the long race of the British GP in seventh place, just two tenths of a second behind sixth-placed Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and less than four seconds from the podium, completed by Pecco Bagnaia, believes that the difference is there, but that it is more noticeable on Saturday than Sunday.

One of the curious moments of Sunday’s race at Silverstone was when Alex and Fabio Di Giannantonio had a close duel for fifth place, with the Italian pointing his tail section to the Spanish rider, as if asking him to follow him in pursuit of Marc, who was running fourth.

“The truth is I didn’t see it at the time, I saw it on TV afterwards. I don’t know what he was trying to do, because we had the same pace, it’s something you don’t see much in MotoGP and usually when they do something like that to you, you enter the corner later,” Alex Marquez said with a laugh. “They can do it when they have much more pace, when they are similar it doesn’t make much sense. But at least it got me on TV a little bit,” he joked.

“I had a good start and managed to do four or five good laps, but then I had problems with the front brake, which slowed me down a lot and then I lost Marc and the guys in front of me. Otherwise I think I could have kept the pace I set until the end, finishing a bit closer to Marc,” he said.

“I felt good with the bike, I would have needed one more lap to pass Aleix (who finished two tenths ahead of him), but the feeling was good. We were penalised a bit by the impossibility of using the hard front tyre, there were three degrees of temperature missing to do so and on the right side we paid a bit more than our rivals. And that’s what made us go down a bit more. I managed to save a bit of rear tyre, but the front dropped more than I thought”, added the Gresini rider.

The choice of the hard compound could have benefited him. “The hard tyre gives more stability and, especially in fast right-hand corners, it gives more support. In any case, due to the ambient temperature it was not possible to drive,” he said.

Regarding the brake issue, Alex vented. “The brakes in MotoGP are very good, but when they have not been used for a long time, when you get to pre-season or when you come back after the break, it is always difficult to make them perfect. This is where we need to work with Brembo (the supplier) to make them more consistent.”

Differences between the Ducati GP23 and the Ducati GP24

The big debate going on in MotoGP is about the differences between this year’s Ducati and last year’s, ridden by Marc and Alex among others. The younger Marquez has a little more information, being in his second year of experience with the bikes from Bologna.

“Well, last year the GP22 won quite a few races (Alex himself won the Sprints at Silverston and Sepang). So I think, and Ducati says so too, that there is a significant step forward, and there are circuits where it is more noticeable and others where it is less noticeable,” he explained.

“It’s true that it doesn’t change the bike completely, but the 24 has something more, it has different aerodynamics, and I also think that those aerodynamics are made more for the new rear tyre that we have this year, with last year’s tyre maybe the 23 was a little better. I think we are getting one hundred percent from the bike now, there are still some details to improve, but in some circuits, as we saw in Silverstone, the 24 has the advantage”, was his diagnosis.

“In the Sprint the 24s are a little ahead of us, I don’t know why. But when it’s a long race the difference is smaller. On Saturday the first one took 9 seconds from us in 10 laps and on Sunday 9.7 in 20. The difference, when the 24s have to manage and be a little more careful, is that we can be a little closer, but in the Sprint they have an advantage. Compared to other manufacturers, like Aprilia, however, the difference is bigger on Sunday”.

Finally, Alex was asked to explain how he thinks Enea Bastianini is so effective in the final part of the races.

“It’s a question we all ask ourselves, the last three laps are scary. In Germany, when the end of the race was approaching I thought ‘now he’ll come and pass me’. In races where the tyre drops a lot, he always makes the difference”, said the driver from Cervera.

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images