MotoGP | Marini: “The key is to ride like Bagnaia and Martin”

Honda has not yet managed to get into gear in this first part of the 2024 MotoGP season. It is no longer surprising to see the four RC213Vs occupying the bottom of the ranking, and there is no way out for the Japanese company. In this difficult context for the four drivers, Luca Marini is the only starting driver not to have scored even one point after the first five races. However, he finished all the long races and can boast of not having seen the checkered flag only in the Jerez Sprint, where he crashed like many others on that occasion.

At Le Mans, the Italian driver finished 27.8 seconds behind Sprint winner Jorge Martin, a gap that became 40 seconds on Sunday. Initially positioned ahead of Joan Mir on Saturday, he found himself in last place when his teammate crashed, and isolated from the pack from lap six onwards. On Sunday he led Takaaki Nakagami, Augusto Fernandez and Alex Rins for a while, but when the Yamaha rider overtook him halfway through the race, he found himself alone at the back again.

As Marini knows, starting from the back of the grid makes for a race of its own, in another world compared to whoever dictates the pace at the front. “The gap accumulated in the first two or three laps is already enormous. On the second lap, the others set the same time as us in qualifying. Already in the first lap we lose five or six seconds, and the same in the second,” he said over the weekend, taking stock of the situation.

Thus, the Italian concluded the French GP with the desire to be already at Mugello, where Honda and Yamaha carried out a private test session), complaining that he continues to have the same problems with Honda, i.e. getting the RC213V to turn and have good stability during acceleration. “I feel like I’m very strong when braking, but then I struggle to turn the bike in the middle of the corner and I also lose on exit. It’s nothing new, but there’s still nothing concrete that makes us think we can get out of the tunnel,” he commented.

So, while the updates are arriving, the number 10 is trying to change his driving style, to align it with that of the reference riders in the category: “We must try to keep smiling. We know we are working, the Japanese are doing their best and updates will come in the next races, so I hope we can aim for better positions. I’m trying to work on my riding style, on my position, because today you can see that Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin are able to make a difference with their bodies.”

“They are the only ones who push in this way, putting their body ‘under’ the bike and making it turn. I believe this is the key for the next few years in MotoGP, everyone is trying to make this change and I am working on it. I’m giving 100% every lap,” he explained, clarifying how the two title favorites can make the difference over everyone else.

At the end of the race, however, Valentino Rossi’s brother remained thoughtful, making a similar observation to that of previous Grands Prix. “What I don’t understand is that I start on Friday with a pace and maintain it until Sunday, while Joan manages to make a really huge step forward during the long race. He had a great race on Sunday, from my point of view. Unfortunately he crashed, but up to that point he had had an excellent race. We have to understand it.”

“If we look only at the best times, Joan Mir was able to make a remarkable evolution at Le Mans, to the point of lapping less than nine tenths of the best lap set on Sunday, despite completing only half the distance.” Luca Marini, for his part, was never less than 1.4 seconds from the lead throughout the GP: 1.9 from the best time in the Sprint and 1.6 in the long race.