MotoGP: Marquez confident about not repeating 2016 struggles

Marc Marquez says he’s feeling confident that he and the Repsol Honda will suffer less this weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix than they did twelve months ago at the Red Bull Ring, with improvements to the RC213V set to make his weekend’s work easier.

Concentrating since last year on acceleration – something that will be key with the circuit’s long straights and slow corners – the championship leader believes he’s win with a fighting chance at podium success.

“The Red Bull Ring is a circuit where we struggled quite a bit last year but hopefully this year it will be different. Brno also used to be a challenging track for us but in the end we got a fantastic result, so we’re going to Austria feeling positive. In the post-race test we were able to look into several aspects of our bike’s setup, also in view of the next race, such as getting better acceleration and reducing the wheelieing.

“Of course we also need good stability on the brakes so we’ll see; as always, it will be a matter of finding a good compromise. The Red Bull Ring round is also important for one of our main sponsors, and we’ll do our best to get a good result for them and to gain important points for the Championship.”

Teammate Dani Pedrosa was more circumspect about the news, however, admitting that while they’ve made progress with the bike, the circuit is still very new to them in it’s second season back on the calendar.

“The Red Bull Ring is pretty much a new circuit, as we have only raced there once and we don’t have much experience with the track. Last year we struggled to find a good setup but we are looking forward to a better result this time. We had a good test on Monday in Brno after the race so in Austria we’ll begin on Friday with a setup we know is working for us and then will try to build on that, with a clear plan for every session. Again the weather may be something to take into account so we must be ready for all conditions and focus on maintaining this good momentum.”