Having finished testing at Sepang, Luca Marini ended the third day in 19th place and far from what he can do, but he believes that, now on a new bike, time will work in his favour as there is ‘a lot of room for improvement’.
In a general summary of his work over the last few days, here’s the Italian’s reaction as he recalls… Ducati: ‘I think there are a lot of positive things from this test, especially in these three days with the other riders where you can get a clearer idea of our potential at the moment. In terms of attacking the times, I didn’t do an incredible lap time, […]. I had some difficulties when I tried to push the Honda with new tyres, it’s different to the Ducati when you have to push hard and I think there’s a lot of room for improvement’.
On his and the team’s side there is some work ahead, he said: ‘In terms of set-up we just started today to try some things on the axles of the bike, the balance in general, and I think in Qatar it will be even more interesting because we will have more parts to test, and that test will also be more important for the race weekend, more focused on lap times and finding a higher speed, to be competitive for the race afterwards’.
Still with the Ducati in mind, Marini recalled one aspect in which his current bike works differently from his previous one:
– In general it was easy to try the time attack, we just have to push the pace more under braking, the bike brakes better with the hard tyre, it helps a lot when stopping. The Ducati uses the rear tyre better than the Honda in my opinion at the moment and we need to improve in that area. With new tyres you want to brake later and I’m struggling. For me that’s the most difficult part at the moment, as well as the last part of the corner entry, I miss corner entry, but it’s a question of set-up at the moment and we have to work on that area and, of course, Joan [Mir] is stronger and faster in this respect.