Luca Marini feels ready to start making his mark in MotoGP. According to the Mooney VR46 rider, anyone who thinks that getting on the podium or winning a race can lead to a click in a driver’s career is wrong. He is convinced that he has already made that click, between the second half of 2022 and the winter break, in which he worked a lot on himself, finding new awareness in his own means.
Something that in a certain sense has already been seen during the first collective tests of the season, in Sepang. We will be back on track at Portimao for the second and last pre-season test over the weekend and if things go well, it will be a good confirmation for Luca, who seems to be very confident in his potential, that of his team and his Ducati Desmosedici. GP22, presented today in Milan, with which he seems to have really established a great feeling.
You set the best time in the tests at both Valencia and Sepang…
“In Portimao we try again, even if unfortunately the tests don’t count for anything. It’s nice to have good sensations when you ride the bike, it’s nice to have fun and work well, and we did all these things. The season is starting in the best possible way and I can’t wait to test the bike in Portimao as well. It’s a track that I really like and it’s also very different from Valencia and Portimao. If we manage to be among the best there too, it will mean that we have a really good package, which works on every track”.
Is having last year’s bike an advantage or a disadvantage when looking at the championship?
“It’s always a disadvantage in my opinion, but it allows you to have more time for yourself to work on small details that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to take care of. Last year it was a completely different test in Malaysia, all racing. A much more difficult situation, especially for us who were a team with people who knew little about Ducati. You end up with a factory bike and at the beginning it’s tiring even for the mechanics. Instead this year I saw a much more serene situation for everyone. Just a much more relaxed atmosphere inside the garage and this helps us riders to perform at our best. I think at the beginning we will be competitive, because I don’t think the GP23 is too different from our bike at the moment, but surely they will always have some updates during the season which is difficult to quantify on lap time, but then over a race can make the difference”.
What engine will you have? The one you also had last year or the one that the factory team approved?
“I don’t even want to know these things here. I told the guys: ‘give me the bike and I’ll try to give my all’. I changed my approach, because when you know too many things it affects you. In today’s MotoGP you don’t have to think about too many things while you’re riding, everything must already be ready. You have to stay calm and try to understand what the bike is doing to give the team the most precise feedback possible, so they can make the right decisions. You don’t have to think about it.”
Let’s turn the question around: do you like the engine you have this year better?
“This year I feel better. I feel very comfortable (laughs)”.
Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team with Valentino Rossi
Photo by: Media VR46
Following your concept a little, one could say that Bagnaia changed pace last year when he put all these arguments aside and thought only of riding…
“I have no idea. Last year was certainly a very strange World Cup. The only certain thing is that he won the World Cup, so he did well and we must be congratulated ”.
Being both members of the VR46 Academy, you and Pecco train together. What was it like having the world champion there with you all winter?
“It was nice, it was really an inspiring winter. I think we four MotoGP riders have grown a lot (the other two are teammate Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli, ed). There is healthy competition, even more than in previous years, because we have reached a point where we are all ready to fight for the podium in a MotoGP race and it is an important stimulus in everyday life”.
Do you think the fact that you and Bezzecchi will have the same bike this year unlike last year will allow you to collaborate more even on race weekends?
“Not really that, but it will certainly be easier to look at the data. When you have two completely identical bikes, things can be seen more precisely. When the bikes are different, maybe the telemetry lines are the same, but there are so many different things in those lines. For example, with the throttle line we see what the grip pilot does, but not how the throttle reacts and this can be very different. So yeah, when you have the same bike, it’s much easier to compare the data. Last year, in fact, I tended not to look at Bez’s telemetry, I looked more at that of the riders who had the same bike as me”.
Looking at the Sprint Race, did you train in any particular way?
“I tried to practice overtaking this winter. Even at the Ranch, in a situation that I consider very safe, I tried to battle a bit with the others to try to fight a bit more. Even seeing the statements Petrucci is making in Superbike, I have the feeling that Sprint Race is a disaster. So in MotoGP I think it will be even worse, knowing the level of the bikes and the riders. The problem is that it will also allow those who may not be competitive on Sunday in the long race: you can race with the softer compound, because the soft can last around ten laps on practically all the tracks. Anyone who has degradation problems can therefore be there if they qualify well. The Sprint Race is something you will only train by doing it, but qualifying will now really be 75% of a weekend.”
Luca Marini, VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Media VR46
Speaking of tyres, there’s the novelty that from this year there will be only two rear options instead of three. Do you think anything changes?
“It changes a lot and it’s a shame, because my team and I are very good at working on the tires and we’ve never made a wrong choice. The rider and the team can make the difference on the right choice of tyre. When you have three, sometimes two are very similar, but you have to be good at choosing the right one and last year we nailed it many times. I think having just two will level the category even further, because we’ll all end up riding more or less on the same tire in every race.”
You are all very close. Uccio was talking about 15 potential winners based on the Sepang times, even if this is an analysis that doesn’t include overtaking. With all this aerodynamics, has it become too complicated to make them?
“I’m one of those who already said last year that it will become increasingly difficult, but not only for the wingers. When you follow another bike, the tires heat up, but it’s the whole bike that heats up. When you’re behind the Honda, it feels like you’re in an oven, and obviously your bike’s engine suffers, so it becomes increasingly difficult to overtake the one in front. Certainly aerodynamics also have an influence, but like the lowering unit and the electronics. As long as this is the regulation, we drivers must try to invent new overtakings. But we will certainly be heading towards a more complicated MotoGP, in which we will have to risk a lot to overtake those in front of you”.
It is said that the first podium or the first victory makes you click that extra…
“It has never actually happened to me. Even when I won in Moto2, I had already clicked before winning. When the time comes, victory will come.”
Do you think your first MotoGP victory is far away?
“No, because I’m happy with the personal growth I’ve had in the last three months. As a driver I don’t know yet, but I’ve had more fun in these months than in all of last season, so I’m coming with a good mentality to the start of this season. Also thanks to the test results, which gave me an extra stimulus”.
So do you think you clicked during these three months off?
“The sensation is that I feel very good, then we’ll see. In the end, the test is a very different situation than a race weekend. But I feel ready, I feel loaded. All in all, I feel good.”
Luca Marini, VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Media VR46
The rumors continue to pay interest from Yamaha for your team. But do you feel more like a Ducati rider or a VR46 rider?
“It’s a very difficult question. I’ll start by saying that Yamaha will have to find a team, because right now it’s a big problem for them. With only two bikes everything is more complicated. Aprilia will also benefit greatly this year from having two more bikes on the track. In my opinion, however, the riders don’t feel tied to a brand or a team, because in the end ours is an individual sport. You are part of a team, but in the end you always look to yourself. Even looking back, many riders have made important decisions to change team and embark on a new challenge, for something you feel inside of you. Even the choice made by Valentino (Rossi, his brother) to change bikes many times in his career is perhaps one of the things that made him the greatest in history. A driver is not an employee, he must be himself and work together with his team ”.
But your contract expires at the end of this year: will you look around?
“I don’t know who has an expiring contract besides me, but honestly I feel like I’m fine where I am. If the vacancies are like in KTM, I wouldn’t embark on a strange adventure, because in the end what every rider wants is to fight to win. Also because it’s the only way to have a long career, because if you’re not up front, after a while it becomes difficult. There are many sacrifices and if something never comes back to you, it’s tough. Also because you don’t even earn anything anymore: either you run to win, because nobody does it anymore by running to finish 14th and bring home the salary”.
In football, on the other hand, you earn a lot…
“Oh yes, in fact, thinking back to my past, when I was undecided about what to do, I could have gone for an audition like in Cesena and see how it went (laughs). In the end, however, the bikes are the thing that gives me the most emotions and that’s what I look for in my life as a stimulus”.
You said that in the last few months you have found a greater awareness, but what kind of work have you done to achieve this?
“It wasn’t just active work, it was also passive work. Having had so much time to stay at home, much more than we usually have, I was able to think back to all of last season, to look back at the races and to think back to the sensations I had. I compared them again with the ones I had in the Valencia test. I get along very well with all the members of my team, I really enjoy talking to them. I’ve been with them in my spare time, when they’ve come to VR to assemble the bikes. It was nice and it also served to give an extra charge to the whole team. Finally you are there, close to your goal and your finish line. You have time to think and say to yourself: ‘damn, look where I’ve come. I must be proud of all the work I’ve done.’ And it’s important to have this awareness, because we’re really lucky to be MotoGP riders, then racing in such a good team with such a good bike. It’s unique, because there are very few people in the world who experience these emotions”.
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Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team with Valentino Rossi
Photo by: Media VR46
