During the pre-event press conference, Marc Marquez clearly answered questions from journalists regarding the new chassis he had: “Honestly, the bike is exactly the same as in Barcelona, and as I think everyone knows, we changed small things on the chassis, but it's not a modification; it's just to have more room to play on the height of the center of gravity. We can change it more, but for the moment, we use exactly the same bike as in Montmelo” (see here everything he said about his chassis and that of Pedrosa).
Obviously, at Paddock-GP, we are fond of technique, so we tried to see what it was all about…
The modification is easily spotted by the large weld bead which now surrounds the swingarm axle housing.
We therefore tried to see if the latter had been moved, even if only a few millimeters, to possibly understand the desired effect, and we therefore “tortured” high definition photos for hours.
Here is an overview of the result, but despite what we think we see (lowering and retreat of the axis), let's be honest, it is impossible for us to say anything; if there was any displacement, it is of the order of a millimeter… In fact, the photos have been too retouched to have the slightest conviction!
Another hot topic, the right exhaust that Marc Marquez refused: “No, I tried it in Montmelo but I didn’t like it, so I’m not bothering with it anymore. In acceleration, we gain nothing, and in my opinion it was worse when entering a corner. I don't know about Dani. I didn't like it at Montmelo, I was slower and the top speed of the bike was the same. »
This exhaust was well mounted on at least one of Dani Pedrosa's two motorcycles on Saturday morning.
Was it used on the track?
Yes, as evidenced by these two photos taken from the Repsol media library.
“Normal” jar
“Straight” pot
Was it used in racing? No.
We can therefore assume that we will not see him again...
