Luca Marini on tough Honda debut: “Last year I finished eighth, but I was not happy”
Italian can see positives from tough first year with Honda in MotoGP
Luca Marini says he is “happier” to “finish 20th” in the 2024 MotoGP standings with Honda than he was ending 2023 eighth in the points with VR46 Ducati.
The Italian was chosen as Gresini-bound Marc Marquez’s replacement for the factory Honda team for 2024, but has endured a difficult year on the RC213V.
Marini has scored just 14 points after 19 rounds, with a best finish of 12th at the San Marino and Thai Grands Prix - leaving him last of the Honda stable in 22nd in the championship.
It’s a far cry from his 2023 season on the VR46 Ducati, in which he was eighth in the points on 201 and visited the podium twice in grands prix.
Despite the difficulties on the developing Honda bike, Marini says he is “happier” now than in 2023 “because I know I’m part of a project that can be great for the future”.
“I know very well that if I will be able to make all the correct moves, or the correct improvements on myself but also on the project, the bike, then the results will arrive,” he told the official MotoGP podcast last month.
“And for me at the moment, making two points, zero, or 10 doesn’t make the difference. Last year I finished eighth, but I was not happy.
“So, this year I will finish 20th but this year I am happier because I know I’m part of a project that can be great for the future and arrive to fighting for the title in the next few years.
“So, the vision of my future here is great, is bright, and I just want to keep working like this and improving myself every day with the time on the bike because we can do a great job.”
Honda riders have endured an intense year around the race schedule too, with numerous private tests being carried out as the Japanese marque looks to lift itself up the order.
Marini says he has ridden his Honda almost every week of 2024, but has done so “with smiles”.
“I arrived in this last part of the season, not tired, but stressed because at the end I think not every week of the year was I on the bike, but almost,” he added.
“So, it’s quite tough but every time with smiles and trying to do my best, because at the end I am really, really lucky to be able to ride a MotoGP bike, even if it is every week, because I enjoy every time that I’m on the bike.
“So, it’s just a great feeling. I’m trying to enjoy this.
“So, for sure, finishing races and collecting more data is very important for the engineers to have also for them data to analyse, because when you make just a short run in practice you have just two, three laps to analyse.
“If you make a full race you have 27. So, it’s another amount of data.”
