Too much wind, no Sprint
The cancellation of today’s Sprint race, removed from the program due to bad weather which made it impossible for the MotoGP cars to race in the right safety conditions on the Phillip Island track, makes Johann Zarco the absolute protagonist of the Australian weekend. In fact, the Frenchman took home his in the GP held yesterday first top-class victorybreaking a curse that had lasted since 2016. Interviewed at the microphones of Sky Sports MotoGP the #5 of the Prima Pramac team, who will move to Honda with Lucio Cecchinello’s team next year, addressed various topics: from the cancellation of today’s race to his future in the top class, and more.
Zarco’s reflections
“I was preparing to leave – has explained – but this morning, when there was more wind and more rain during the warm up, I went back to the pits because I couldn’t get the tires up to temperature. If you can’t do this everything becomes very complicated. With less water and just the wind I would have liked to run, but this wind pushes really hard and at the end it was a good decision not to compete. After yesterday’s victory I wanted to try again and score points for the championship, but I can also think that I got the maximum points this weekend and recovered two positions in the standings.”. Zarco then highlighted how the problem of correctly manage tire temperature is something that has accompanied him since the days when he dominated in Moto2: “Even then, sometimes I couldn’t get the tires up to temperature. The faster you go, the warmer the tires become and then everything gets better, but I wasn’t able to go in this direction. In Moto2 I had difficulties on this track, but MotoGP helped me because we have specific tires that work better. In the wet, however, it felt like I was going back to those times“.
“In MotoGP you have to have a more aggressive mentality to control the bike – added the French champion – and even when the conditions are good you need to have a lot of adrenaline to keep the bike going. With today’s wind we needed to do even more. But if there had been a race, we drivers would have gone. That’s why I had prepared myself, I was just trying to understand what the decisions were going to be. I understand that Jorge would have wanted to race, because he was going well this morning and he would have had that feeling for a podium or for the victory. But I also understand the others who, like me, haven’t managed to fix the bike: if you can’t do this, you can’t ride. I was hoping that the track would dry out with the wind. At that point I would have had an advantage.”.
The future in Honda and yesterday’s victory
Then Zarco faced the delicate chapter of his transfer to Hondain Lucio Cecchinello’s team and not in the official team, despite Marc Marquez’s farewell: “Lucio is a nice person, who works seriously. The relationship we have is also good for him, because I am competitive and can fight for the top five places. This means having the opportunity to develop Honda. Official team? I couldn’t put that opportunity aside after Marc Marquez’s announcement. I needed to think about that position, but when I spoke to my manager I saw that Honda seemed to be hesitating on something and I didn’t like that. I prefer a total commitment with Lucio rather in a satellite team than not being 100% with the official team”. Finally Zarco has argued with the federation for yesterday’s podiumduring which, on the track, the Marseillaise was not heard: “I could have cried on the podium during the anthem, but they ruined this moment for me. I told the FIM president that it was a scandal to have had the Marseillaise heard on TV but not on the podium. I took off my hat but I didn’t hear the anthem. I wanted to kill everyone“.
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