Anyone being objective had to know what's coming...barring injury. He's about to make some people eat crow next year
Meh, those are the kind of tears you wipe away with hundred dollar bills.......I have a buddy of mine that absolutely HATES his job, and every once in a while will take his pay stub out of his wallet to look at and remind himself why he does it lol From my standpoint it was a great move for Luca. A great move for vr46, and a great move for Honda. I think they will turn it around this year and make some great progress.
Kinda surprised by Frankie though. Edit: I guess he's only 0.1 off his teamate though. That's actually not that bad. Considering.
As long as Marini doesn't suffer any long-term injuries there is no downside. He's getting factory money, 1st class flights, etc... The bike inevitably will be better because it can't get worse. It will give the appearance that he can help develop a bike regardless if he is successful or not. And if he has a couple of rough years most will ignore it because of all that failed before him (Lorenzo, Espargaro, etc..)
An he just fired in a faster lap than his teamate who's had a year one the Honda already. I know testing times don't mean a whole lot, but .7 off the leader in worsening conditions isn't too bad. He's only 0.532 off Marc too. Still too far to consider fighting for podiums and wins, but a good baseline to build from.
Marini definitely looks better than we thought he'd do. Aprilia did Raul a solid and gave him the latest/greatest and he's making the most of it. Miller must have a Hemi in that KTM because it sounds significantly louder and different than anything else.
it's a new bike, so they are probably testing some things. Marc has a sorted out bike that just won the championship
^^ they mentioned that Ducati have almost nothing new for the 24s for the factory team but maybe a small engine update on the commentary
Depends what they were testing, but being that close to your teamate who was just runner up in the championship is a pretty good measure. Marc had nothing to do but throw leg over an already well sorted bike that just finished 1/2 and throw hot laps down. Same as Bezz and Alex.
Martin said there was more power and he isn't happy with electronics. There is speculation that visible (aero...) updates that may have been tested when they had a test with Pirro and kicked all the media out of the racetrack may be revealed at a later test, when there's less time for the competition to copy them.
I thought it was funny that Bez knocked MM down a spot with a .093 off pole lap… hope that gave the little happy dude a smile to last him awhile
is Martin taking his crew to the DR again this year for H&B again? The pics from last year were funny…
Interesting point Crafar said Martin doesn't really understand bike setup, not even preload, while Pecco gives good feedback to the staff. Also explains why Martin's setup is pretty stagnant.
that seems impossible at that level…. But I did have a Daytona 200 winner and former factory Superbike rider on my R6 who was completely clueless and always said the same thing no matter what… I had to watch the bike on track and make changes from observation and got him in front of a bunch of factory bikes in Supersport that way… including Graves bikes… but… mine were faster and on Race Tech suspension(RIP Lenny)…seriously but….. Martin is a Spaniard with his entire life on bikes iirc… how and why?!?