After the first MotoGP race in 2022, the Qatar Grand Prix, came to an end, an observant Twitter follower asked me why the symbol used for Marc Marquez’s front tire selection was different from others.
Watching the playback and then referencing the analysis PDFs on the new MotoGP results section clearly shows what Marquez did.
He and his team chose to fit a soft front tire that had been scrubbed, and thus, had a lap of use.
Running through the data in different sessions confirms this. During the heat of the FP1, Marquez used a medium front and a hard front, before using two soft fronts in the FP2.
He used the third soft front in FP3, before switching to the hard front. He did a gentle front lap at the start of the session, then moved in to switch the front tire.
The third soft front tire, used in the FP3, is a hint of what Marquez has decided to do. The Repsol Honda rider fitted the same soft front, with one lap on it, at the beginning of the FP4, and then did seven laps with the soft front, before switching to medium front.
FP4 is usually a session where riders work on race setup and strategy, and this seems to be what Marquez and his team have decided to pursue.
They repeated the tactic in Sunday’s warm-up. A single slow lap in the afternoon heat, in preparation for a new soft front tire to be used in the race. Then a longer run on a medium front in which Marquez crashed.
That crash ultimately determined Marquez’s front tire choice. “This morning I had a small collision, then this, I was suspicious,” said the driver Repsol Honda. He chose a soft front tire with a washer on it.
Old better than new?
Why would you start the race with a non-brand new tire? Without knowing the exact details of how Marquez’s team handled the tyres, we can make educated guesses.
Putting a slow heat cycle into the tire will slightly alter the rubber and affect the way the tire responds. The Hondas really wanted to use the medium front tyre, but Qatar’s odd schedule meant they didn’t have enough track time in track conditions to test it properly. So the safe choice is to race the soft front, and risk it being too soft.
That’s what they’re probably trying to solve with extra washers. By conditioning the tire, it can make it react a little more like a vehicle, providing a little more support or a little more durability.
That seems counter-intuitive. Usually, if you put a lap in a tire, it will degrade. Especially the soft tyres. But the laps where Marquez stepped on the tire indicated that it was a very deliberate act: in FP3, Marquez did a 2’10 lap. In the warm-up, he did a lap 2’18, 2 or 3 seconds slower than his other laps in the first three arcs.
Did it work? That’s hard to judge without knowing exactly what Marquez and his crew were trying to achieve.
The Spaniard ran wide in Round 1 in the first three rounds, failing to hit the right corner goal. But Marquez struggled with the beginning of New Honda RC213V since it arrived.
The new bike is clearly a big step forward – third and fifth in its first race are proof of that – but it requires a complete change of approach.
Secret
“Confidence with the front is not the highest at the moment,” Marquez said after the race. “And I am struggling a little more to understand. Especially in practice, you believe [in the front]because you know that if you have a collision it’s okay. ”
“But in the race, when you’re not confident, you can’t be as confident in it as you want to be.” Crashing is in fact an acceptable risk, but the risk of ending up with zero points in a race crash is not worth it.
However, improving confidence is something Marquez and his team are working on. “We are discovering things that are different with this new bike, and it is true that since I started on the first test we have improved, especially in Mandalika,” said the Repsol rider. Honda said.
“We don’t touch much here, because it’s the first race, and I don’t want to get lost, and we just focus on the track and the tires.”
Possibly, part of the focus on the tires was choosing to use air-conditioned front tires. Whether Marquez and his team will attempt to repeat this strategy remains to be seen.
However, we can be sure that his opponents will carefully look at the lap standings to see if Marquez achieves something at future races.
Photo: Repsol Honda
