Luca Marini finished the Catalan GP in 17th position. The Italian rider is still struggling to perform well, but despite the results he is confident that the Japanese manufacturer is making progress.
In a debrief, the Repsol Honda Team rider spoke about the race and the sensations he experienced during it.
– Yeah, in fact it was my best race today. I just had a problem with the temperature of the front tire because I was in the slipstream of Taka for more than half the race. I was trying to overtake him because I was faster than him. I don’t know how much he was managing the rear tire, but I was feeling something better, some more potential, some more pace, but I could not overtake him. He’s faster in the straight, he has a different spec in the bike, so at the moment I was struggling to overtake him, and he was smart and clever to close everything, so he made a very good race. Yeah, with the new upgrades, the spin is more. It’s one of our problems, but this track, the spin, is a problem for everybody. I think that also for Pecco, it was a problem, the spinning with the rear. We have to be focused and smart to understand in which area we have to work. In my opinion, we are doing a great job. We just need to wait for more upgrades or find more performance because at least I can enjoy it when I ride the bike. I’m feeling not in an incredible way, but for sure much better comparing the first races of the season. So now I can ride, I can defend myself, and I can attack, so this is great. But I still miss the performance. So we are waiting for this. Maybe Mugello, we can have something more.
He added of the progress made so far by the team: ‘Yeah, it’s not only the spin, the bad part. This is the problem, that you have to work on many things. So it’s difficult when you have so many weaknesses to find the performance in just five races. We need to wait more time because every race we make one step. I think that now the bike is better for riding. I don’t know, the feeling is much better. I cannot tell you more than this.’