Marc Marquez: “Difficult to understand the limit, you crash without warning”
Although he finished the Australian MotoGP, Marquez struggled to maintain his pace after using a soft rear tyre.
The eight-time world champion, who is joining Gresini Ducati next season, had also suffered several crashes in recent rounds which has impacted his feeling with the RC213V massively.
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Asked what is missing this year ahead of the ThaiGP at Buriram, Marquez said: “The feeling. I can’t say one point. I’m missing the feeling.
“It’s difficult to understand the limit of the bike. Sometimes you crash without warning. It gives you less confidence and less feeling.
“In Phillip Island I was pushing. If you need to take extra risk, you normally prefer to do it in slow corners, because in the fast corners if you crash?
“Normally it’s easy to get injured. So we’ll start like in Phillip Island - attacking. But attacking doesn’t mean a good result.
“It means, with a good mentality, trying to push from the beginning. Let’s see if we start in a good way, in the top 10 would be good.”
One of Marquez’s best rounds of the 2023 season was at the inaugural Indian MotoGP, and the Repsol Honda rider says he will start FP1 with the same set-up.
“We will start more or less like in India. The rear casing is the same as India. I’d struggled with it in the past but, in India, I managed.
“It’s true that, with this casing, Joan was riding a bit better. Immediately in FP1 you understand if you’re on a good pace or if you want to change the setting.”
Marquez sees possibilities if it rains
One of the ‘wet-weather masters’ in MotoGP, Marquez could take advantage of the inconsistent weather that seems to be in store this weekend.
Honda’s window for winning is very small at present, but with Marquez still one of the fastest riders, wet conditions could give him a chance at claiming an unlikely victory in 2023.
Marquez said: “If it’s wet, the possibilities are higher. But it’s true that, this year in the wet, I was fast but wasn’t riding in a good way.
“I don’t feel the way to ride fast. Sometimes I ride fast in the wet because I know where to brake, where to open the gas, where I need to lean.
“But not by the feeling of the bike. Last year the feeling was super good. This year in the wet I am okay, but the feeling is not good.
“For that reason, in Silverstone for example, in the wet we struggled a lot.”
