Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez is having to change his riding style in order to stop his Repsol Honda RC213V being so aggressive and difficult to control under heavy braking and corner exit
The Spanish wunderkind ran wide several times at Le Mans and did again in free practice at Mugello. A new swingarm has helped, says Marquez but the aggressiveness of this year’s bike is making his life difficult.
“Today I used both swingarm, especially for Honda. OK, maybe we lose time but they want to understand for the future which direction to go. I try the swingarm I race in Le Mans, the new one, and the old one, and it looks like it is better,”
“We are working quite hard about the electronics. Today we concentrate on that side for improve the character of the engine and it looks like we improve. We try a different thing but it looks like it was not working.
“Some things are working well to improve the feeling. It is especially aggressive on the exit of corners. On the entry I think we change a big thing to improve that. It looks like we improve the moving and the wheelie, and the consistency will be much better.”
“In braking, I am trying to change more than the bike. Because this is the bike. It is sliding a lot so I am changing to avoid the sliding, it is difficult because over bumps it is more aggressive.
Marquez is not braking with his rear wheel in the air anything like as much as he did last year and says that if he brakes late enough to do that, it causes more problems.
“The problem this year is I can’t. If I do that it is even worse so I try to avoid that. But then you have to brake earlier. If I try like last year, I don’t make the corner. Last year it was one of my strongest points but now I am struggling.”
