Speaking to the podcast “The Wild Project”, Jorge Lorenzo talked about the preparation he had to do to try and win the MotoGP world championship against Marc Márquez and what it takes to be a true champion.
– Well, a lot of preparation. I remember Lugano in 2013, after the arrival of Márquez, who was coming on very strong. I knew I had to turn the screws if I wanted to win, because this guy was going to beat us. So, after the Le Mans race, I picked up the phone and said: “Dad, you have to help me. After 3 or 4 years of not speaking to him, I hired him and took him to Lugano, together with my coach, and the three of us lived in my house and worked very closely together, very focused on the goal of winning the 2013 World Championship. My father was always very methodical, a Russian coach with character, we either hated him or loved him, I know he liked to win but he didn’t show it. I did hours and hours of training and stretching, only half an hour before bed, it was all ‘repeat, repeat, repeat’. It was my life and I started winning and gaining points on Márquez and in the end I lost out because of my collarbone and injuries. That was the level of demand I had during those years
He added about his choices on the track and all the planning for each race: ‘You have to be an analyst, a scientist outside the circuit, when you’re at home, and analyze everything and try to improve everything. But when you’re on the bike, you have to be an artist and not think, it’s instinct. The most you can do is think. When you cross the finish line and they show you on the board how far behind you are, you think “I’ve got to push a bit harder” or “I’ve got seven laps to go”. The rest is being an artist, it’s total instinct. Because the more you think, the slower you go