Marini on Martin: “His feeling with the bike is incredible”

Francesco Bagnaia finished on the podium in eight out of nine races (including five wins) from Assen to Sepang last season, allowing him to catch and then snatch the 2022 title from Fabio Quartararo.

However, the factory Ducati star is now on the receiving end of similar crushing momentum from 2023 championship rival Jorge Martin.

The Pramac Ducati rider has stormed to ten podiums (eight wins) in the last twelve races (including Sprints) to sit just 13 points behind Bagnaia with three rounds to go.

But it’s not just Bagnaia who is no doubt casting a careful eye over Martin’s data.

The open data sharing policy at Ducati, which is thought to include a personalised report from Ducati Corse, outlining each rider’s strengths and weakness from the data after each event, means all the other Desmosedici competitors can also see where Martin is gaining.

VR46’s Luca Marini explained that, rather than a specific riding technique or technical setting giving Martin the edge, it is the Spaniard’s sky-high confidence that is encouraging the #89 to push the limits.

"At this moment, Martin is making an amazing job, also his feeling with the bike is incredible,” Marini said. “Every time you look at [his] data, he can turn the bike on a [drinking] glass, as we say in Italian.”

Asked if Martin’s extreme lean-angle style was the key to his cornering ability, Marini insisted:

"No, because Jorge’s [riding style] is the same - also last year he was riding in an amazing way, but [his results were] not so fantastic.

“It depends a lot on the bike balance, the feeling and confidence you have on the bike, which can help you push more and ride well. But everybody rides very well [in MotoGP].”

Instead, Marini added weight to the theory that Pramac has found a set-up that perfectly suits Martin’s style and are not deviating from it.

“It’s just he’s found a very good [bike] balance that works very well at every circuit,” Marini said.

“We need to keep working like this. But we are doing a great job ourselves. It’s normal he’s going a bit faster than us because he has a factory bike and after all the upgrades now to their bike and my [2022] bike, the gap is a little bit bigger.

“But it’s not an excuse for us because with our bike we can make a podium at every GP."

Although still seeking his second grand prix podium after a career best runner-up finish in COTA, Marini has been in the top three at the last two Saturday Sprint races (Indonesia and Thailand).

But he left Buriram disapointed with seventh place (following Aleix Espargaro's penalty) in the Sunday race.

"I expected a little bit better. For sure the top three guys [Martin, Bagnaia, Binder] were really strong, really fast," he said. "I was trying to manage the rear tyre a lot but in the end I finished it before the other riders.

"I was struggling especially on stopping the bike and corner entry, because when I was sliding it was difficult to have a good turning inside the corner, so this penalised my exit. This [problem] was in entry in my opinion.

"We need to look at the data to understand in which part I was using the rear tyre too much, which temperature, and if we can find a solution for next time, which can also be Malaysia because there is a lot of temperature also there. It will be very important to keep down the temperature of the tyres."

The Malaysian MotoGP starts on Friday.