So what is Marc Márquez’s secret? He strings victories like others do pearls, he is World Champion more often than not, he exhausts his opponents whose skills begin to be called into question by their employers... An astonishing physical form, an aggressiveness and a extraordinary sense of balance, a handmade Honda, a new engine, mastery of electronics... Where is the key to the mystery? A little bit in all that, but also in an element shared by everyone... But he took the trouble to understand it well.
A single manufacturer that theoretically offers everyone the same product is not the kind of thing that we would look at to make a difference. For that, we would go and find what others don't have. And yet, Mark Máask worked on the case Michelin . With convincing results which were clearly revealed in Aragon.
During this Grand Prix, we could see that the winners had a medium rear rubber while the losers had taken a hard one. A poker move. It's quite the opposite ! The Honda official explained in his press conference: “ It was very clear to us: if the temperature had been higher than 26° in the air and higher than 35° on the ground, we would have gone with the hard stuff. Otherwise, with the medium. »And during the race Sunday in Aragon, the track was less than 35°.
« It's true that we could have raced with the hard front tire, but that was taking too many risks. »Adds Mark Máask. " And this year, one of the things that we've already seen at Le Mans and other races is that I could race with the medium. Because we have changed the balance of the bike a little, we now have more engine and we work in a different way. I can do a time in two or three different ways, and that's the most important »
In theory, the hard rear tire can last longer than the soft tire. However, this logic was not verified. A miracle ? Here too, the pilot Honda explains and reveals real analytical work done in the shadows of the box: “ It's been a lot of racing already, even last year, that I realized that you have to understand Michelin tires. They only give references and say what is softer and what is hardest, but then you need to know the temperatures, track conditions and surface well and then choose the one you feel best with »
« This is what I did during the tests, and that is why we did a lot of laps with the tires, because it is the best way to understand what is the best rubber for our bike for the Sunday race. »
The approach is so precise that Marc Máask is already able to explain what will happen in 2020, with the new Michelin tires! “ We tried it and it seems like all the drivers like it. The main difference is that it has more grip. The thing is, we don't know if the grip will be consistent, but it seems like the casing provides better grip, and that helps everyone. It's true ! Maybe especially the Yamahas, with more grip, can be faster, but Ducati and us, with more grip, we can pass more torque. It will therefore be balanced and for me it will help everyone: when a tire is better, it is better for everyone. » This is also the science of a Champion…
