Finishing 5th in the Sprint Race and 9th in the GP, Luca Marini left Texas with only a partial smile. The Honda HRC rider knows that he needs to do better, but, above all, he’s aware of the increasingly fierce competition. While urging Honda to take action and respond quickly to close the gap, Luca explained what went wrong.
“It all happened at the start. Compared to the Sprint, I didn’t make up any positions. In fact, I got off to a very bad start, which is strange because I usually get off to a good start, given the RC213V’s excellent clutch response. In this case, that wasn’t the case, and we need to figure out why, since it compromised pretty much everything, leaving me in fifteenth place. I still had a lot of fun battling in the back of the pack. In the first three laps, there was a lot of chaos, and I pulled off several overtakes. Then, when I ended up behind Raul Fernandez, our pace was similar. I tried to push to make up ground, but I went wide several times. Also, because of the wind, I had trouble finding the right braking point, since it was the opposite of where it was on Saturday and Friday,” he said, during his post-race analysis.
Despite the challenges, the Italian rider never gave up. “I knew anything could happen, so I gave it a shot and did well, because Bagnaia was struggling with the rear in the final stages. I overtook him on the last lap, and I’m happy about that. Let’s just say this race demonstrated how much everyone’s level has improved. Keeping up with the leaders is very tough right now. Personally, I pushed hard in every corner and braking zone for the entire race, and, even if the tires responded very well, it was really hard,” he admitted, noting how much the result stings, even though he's in the Top 10.
“Overall, ninth place doesn’t satisfy me. I want more, and, to achieve that, we’ll need to improve the package. We’ll see what we have available during the Jerez test,” he added. “I don’t yet know what the Japanese teams will bring, or if we’ll get the updates for the GP as well, or just for that occasion. In any case, the important thing now is to focus on qualifying, because starting up front allows you to fight for the top positions, and Mir has proven that. Fifth is positive, given our current level.”
Despite everything, the bar must remain high. “Right now, we’re more in the sixth-, seventh-, or eighth-place range. But, if we want to improve, we can’t settle for that, and we have to try to fight for the podium in at least one race this season.”
Technically speaking, progress has definitely been made. “We did an excellent job with the set-up over the winter. My crew chief took my feedback into account, and we managed to create an excellent foundation together, despite the need for updates, which we’ll have to wait for. In the meantime, we’ll need to find the best set-up for each race since every track is unique, and we’ll do so starting from our foundation that, like I said, is solid,” he pointed out, then he listed the areas that need reviewing.
“We have some ideas. In particular, we know we need to improve rear grip—our long-standing issue—but also corner entry and achieve greater stability, so the rider can be more aggressive and less at the limit,” he revealed, finally highlighting the new components tested in Austin.
“The new fairing performed well on this track, but I don’t think it brings significant improvements over the standard one. On the aerodynamics front, we have a lot of room for improvement, but since we no longer benefit from the concessions, we’ve already frozen everything, so the work will be focused on the future. As for me, I’ve advised Honda to let us test all the 2027 aerodynamic details this year because they could help us right away,” he concluded.