Rd.11 Austrian GP - Track Report

Track Report by Alberto Puig [Repsol Honda Team - Team Manager]

Even if the end result is not great, do we leave Austria with a good feeling?

Obviously, the final result was not good, but if we look at Marc's race we can see that even if he had disadvantages, he was able to go with the top riders and stay with them in the dry. That's important for Marc Marquez and also very important for the Repsol Honda Team because we understand that he is returning to his real potential. We are leaving Austria of course missing some of the potential in our RC213V, but we are constantly working to improve. We are not there yet but we are on the way.

Not all riders changed bike, which was the best strategy?

I think that in this situation you cannot know which is the best strategy until after the race. Even then, only the rider knows. This is a gamble and sometimes you have the luck you need to make the gamble pay off. Talking is easy, acting is complicated. This is what it was today.

Positive and negative points after race?

The positive is that Marc could race with top riders for the whole Grand Prix and the negative is his crash at the end of the race. I think his rear tyre choice was a good decision, it was different to normal, but Marc and the team understood what they needed. Also, the understanding between Pol Espargaro and his bike is a negative. He is far away from his potential, and he is missing out on the bike’s potential. He is suffering and we need to work with him to overcome the situation.

We are coming back to Silverstone, circuit where we did not race last season.

Yes, we are coming back to England. Silverstone is a very difficult track, it’s not easy at all. It is a very long, fast and often cold track. As in the past, we can see many things there, just like Austria. In Austria we saw that it can rain, but in England it can also be cold, and it makes everything a bit more complicated. The important point of the last two weeks is that we gathered more data and have seen Marc returning to his standard level step-by-step.