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Three problem areas Ferrari ‘need to fix’ to beat Max Verstappen, according to former driver Felipe Massa

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Ex-Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has outlined three problem areas the Italian F1 team must address if they are to beat Max Verstappen this year.

Despite a promising start to the season, Ferrari were unable to maintain a championship challenge in 2022, as a catalogue of operational and driver errors enabled Red Bull’s Verstappen to dominate on his way to sealing a second successive world title.

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari’s failed title bid led to the resignation of team principal Mattia Binotto, who has been replaced by former Alfa Romeo boss Frederic Vasseur for 2023.

Massa, who agonisingly missed out on the drivers’ crown to Lewis Hamilton but helped Ferrari win their last constructors’ title in 2008, has identified where the Scuderia need to strengthen if they are to stand any chance of overhauling Verstappen this year.

“First of all I think Charles is doing a fantastic job. He’s a great driver, he really deserves to be in a competitive car,” Massa told Polish outlet Swiat Wyscigow.

“He deserves to have the opportunity to fight for the championship as a driver. But I think they need to fix the problem. They need to improve the things that are not working – on the strategy but also on so many other things.

“They have mechanical issues at the beginning of the season. They had problems in the pit stop, many, many problems in the strategy.”
Charles Leclerc

The Brazilian added: “In the end, to win the championship, everything needs to be perfect. For me, when you have a season like that, it’s important to fix things in the right way.

“If you start to change things and you change for the wrong way, that is not good. So you need to change things in the right way and fix them quickly.”

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WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM MOTOGP’S 2023 RIDER RESHUFFLE

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MotoGP’s rider line-up has undergone some very significant changes for 2023, with Suzuki’s withdrawal throwing a curveball into the market.

But which riders have ended up taking a step backwards? And who’s landed in just the right place?

Which teams are now (by luck or judgement) now much better off with their 2023 rider pairing? And who’s going to miss their 2022 line-up?
Here’s our list of winners and losers from the reshuffle:
WINNERS
HONDA

MotoGP

Honda’s 2022 was historically bad, and yet it was rewarded with the signatures of two genuinely great riders, who had looked like they’d be unavailable and then suddenly found themselves needing to make an unplanned visit to the job centre. Elite sport is kind of goofy like that sometimes.

Even the staunchest defenders of Pol Espargaro and Alex Marquez – and honestly, that category probably includes this writer – can’t argue that Honda hasn’t upgraded its line-up by adding Joan Mir to the Repsol garage and Alex Rins to LCR.

And it’s also made it more youthful – Rins is over four years younger than Espargaro, and only a few months older than the younger Marquez, who himself is a year older than already-champion Mir.

Those two additions are a luxury. The only real downside is that there’s nowhere to hide – if it turns out neither Mir, nor Rins, can get anything out of the RC213V, that’s a Honda problem clear as day, and it’ll inform the 2025 thinking of one Marc Marquez. – Valentin Khorounzhiy

DUCATI

We now know Pecco Bagnaia can handle pressure, dominate races and win a MotoGP world championship. On the way to proving that, he turned the tables on Jack Miller – who’d arguably looked the stronger prospect when they were Pramac team-mates – and now Miller’s off to KTM.

In his place, Ducati brings in the underdog superstar of 2022: Enea Bastianini. He’s proved he can win and even fight for the title (in a long shot sort of way) when not even in a works team or on the latest spec of bike, and has a knack for preserving tyre life for late charges that’s unrivalled in the current field.

Proven champion + pretty obvious future champion = a line-up with no obvious flaws for the factory Ducati team, so it has to be considered a winner. Deservedly so, given the degree to which it’s focused on generating its own talent too.

But will this be a Pyrrhic victory? Miller did an admirable job in both 2021 and 2022 of knowing Bagnaia was Ducati’s best title bet and falling into a support role. Very few would’ve done so with such grace.

Bastianini hasn’t come to Ducati to be number two. Bagnaia isn’t going to want to relinquish team seniority while defending a title.

Ducati’s got the best line-up on the grid, yet that could mean a huge headache in the garage. – Matt Beer

Taka Nakagami should be simply happy that he still had a seat at the MotoGP table once the music has stopped, after a frankly terrible 2022 season.

Saved more than anything else because fellow Japanese racer Ai Ogura made the choice to remain in Moto2 for another season, it’s not a secret that Nakagami remains on very thin ice at LCR Honda.

Whether any performance will be good enough for Nakagami to retain the seat beyond this season, given what’s expected from 2022 title contender Ogura in the middleweight class, remains to be seen.

But the circumstances of others more than anything Nakagami has done himself is what has helped him get one more chance in the first place. So, just for still being in the field, he’s a winner in the rider market. – Simon Patterson

ALEX MARQUEZ

MotoGPThree riders – Alex Marquez, Alex Rins, Miguel Oliveira. Three vacancies – LCR Honda, RNF Aprilia, Gresini Ducati.

Marquez is the least successful of the three in MotoGP terms, yet there’s a good case to be made that, in the mini-silly season involving the trio, he’s made off the absolute best.

Yes, Gresini is at best third-tier in Ducati’s structure, and it’ll be a year-old bike unlike the works-spec available at LCR Honda. But that was also the case in 2022, and Gresini won four times as many races as Honda and Aprilia combined.

The junior Marquez is a very talented rider who’s worked hard to get to where he is – but he really should spend a good chunk of 2023 imitating the famous ‘can’t believe this is my life’ LeBron James image, as he could’ve very well been off the grid instead of on a bike as good as the 2022 Desmosedici. – VK

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Who are the MotoGP riders’ crew chiefs for 2023?

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Each and every MotoGP rider has a chief mechanic who assists and accompanies him throughout a MotoGP weekend. As the 2022 season was marked by announcements of renewals and changes between riders and teams, the same can happen to these technicians who sometimes accompany their rider on a new adventure, as is the case with Jack Miller.

With less than three weeks to go until the first pre-season tests this year, the official MotoGP website has shared an updated list of chief mechanics who will be alongside the fastest riders in the world.

Get to know each rider’s crew chief for 2023:

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
Fabio Quartararo: Diego Gubellini (no change)
Franco Morbidelli: Patrick Primmer (no change)

Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez: Santi Hernandez (no change)
Joan Mir: Giacomo Guidotti (worked with Takaaki Nakagami last year)

Ducati Lenovo Team
Enea Bastianini: Marco Rigamonti (worked with Johann Zarco until the end of the 2022 season)
Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia: Christian Gabarrini (no change)

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Brad Binder: Andres Madrid (no change)
Jack Miller: Cristhian Pupulin (worked with Miller in 2022 at Ducati and also moves to KTM)

Aprilia Racing
Aleix Espargaro: Antonio Jimenez (no change)
Maverick Viñales: Jose Manuel Cazeaux (worked with Alex Rins in 2022 and moves to Aprilia after leaving Suzuki in MotoGP)

Prima Pramac Racing
Johann Zarco: Massimo Branchini (signed; worked with Augusto Fernandez in Moto2)
Jorge Martin: Daniele Romagnoli (no change)

LCR Honda
Alex Rins: David Garcia
Takaaki Nakagami: Klaus Nöhles (who comes from the HRC test team)

GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3
Pol Espargaro: Paul Trevathan (P. Espargaro’s chief mechanic during 2017 and 2020 at KTM; worked with Miguel Oliveira at KTM)
Augusto Fernandez: Alex Merhand (worked with Remy Gardner)

Aprilia RNF Team
Miguel Oliveira: Giovanni Mattarollo (worked with Maverick Viñales until the end of last season)
Raul Fernandez: Noe Herrera (returns to work with Fernandez after helping him in 2021 in his attempt to win the title in Moto2)

Gresini Racing
Alex Marquez: Donatello Giovanotti (worked with Fabio Di Giannantonio)
Fabio Di Giannantonio: Frankie Carchedi (worked with Joan Mir at Suzuki)

Mooney VR46 Racing Team
Luca Marini: David Muñoz (no changes)
Marco Bezzecchi: Matteo Flamigni (no changes)

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Motogp Suzuki
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A MOTOGP RULE CHANGE WAS ABOUT TO DO SUZUKI A BIG FAVOUR

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Coming into the 2022 MotoGP season, things looked to very much be on the up for Suzuki, with two fast riders and a revitalised bike that promised to be as competitive as its title-winning 2020 year.

And things were exactly on course, too, until the bombshell news hit last May that Suzuki would withdraw from the series at the end of the season. The shocked team slumped for months thereafter.

It left on a relative high with Alex Rins’ two victories from the final three races of the year, but even with that late surge Suzuki was only fifth out of six in the manufacturers’ standings and sixth in the teams’ championship. Its final campaign was mainly a story of unfulfilled potential, at least compared to the pre-season optimism.
There’s perhaps an even bigger question hanging that we’ll now never know the answer to: what would have been possible for Rins and team-mate Joan Mir in 2023 as MotoGP prepares for a seemingly small but significant rule change to come into force.

The issue of minimum tyre pressures was first raised mid-way through the 2022 season when a post-race chart was leaked to journalist Mat Oxley showing just how many of the grid had failed to be in compliance with the values specified by control tyre manufacturer Michelin.

Introduced mainly as a safety issue to ensure that dangerously low pressures (something that presents a performance advantage at least in the short term) don’t cause tyres to fail, it might be a rule but it’s one that hasn’t yet been enforced as manufacturers were given a year to complete a working tyre pressure monitoring system.

Motogp Suzuki

The large range of values on display were due to the tyres themselves more than anything that the teams were deliberately doing wrong. Overloaded by a huge step forward in the forces generated by a modern MotoGP machine with ride height devices and extensive aerodynamics, the tyres became exceptionally sensitive to pressure fluctuations, something that has to be taken into account by crews setting up a bike.

That involves an inherent gamble that has to be taken before a race even starts. Expect to be in the middle of the pack, and go lower on your starting pressure knowing that the heat generated from following other bikes will raise it – but with the risk that you find yourself on clear track and don’t meet the minimum pressure.

Alternatively, if you’re starting at the front of the grid and are aiming for a clean breakaway (standard issue Yamaha and Suzuki tactics thanks to the high corner speed of their inline-four engine) but get bogged down in a fight against Ducatis, you’re going to be in trouble as the pressure goes too high and you’re effectively left riding on ice.

While the onus was on teams to ensure that riders weren’t starting races with pressures that were dangerously low, a control monitoring system was never mandatory before 2023, so the rule could never be properly introduced.

Instead, because there were different sensors and different ways of processing the collected data through the field, a system could show a too-low pressure for one rider and too high for another all while both were within the legal limits.

That’s going to change for this coming season, though, as a new control tyre pressure monitoring system is coming. Specific details are still to be laid out by series bosses, but it seems that under the new rule any single lap in practice or qualifying with a too-low temperature will be deleted – and riders completing more than half the full race distance below the limit will be disqualified.

Motogp Suzuki

So how would this have affected Suzuki for 2023? Well, it seems that amid all the manufacturers being caught out at various points during 2022 by being outside the Michelin-specified values, Rins and Mir were the two most consistently within the margin.

On multiple occasions that had a detrimental on the two riders’ performances as rivals got away with running lower pressures and had a laptime benefit.

Some well-placed sources within the paddock suggest that other factories who were consistently outside the limits could lose up to a second per lap in 2023 now that they’re going to be forced to work within the letter of the rule rather than abiding by the gentlemen’s agreement of last year that meant no one was punished.

That potentially could have opened a door for Suzuki in particular to thrive again.

This will always be a hypothetical, of course, now that Suzuki’s walked away from the championship.

But with the new rules still set to come into force when the season kicks off in March, it’ll at least give the opportunity to assess just how much of a lap time hindrance that the others are now carrying.

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MAX VERSTAPPEN CONFESSES BIGGEST RED BULL PROBLEM

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“You can’t have a car like that” confesses Max Verstappen looking back on the biggest Red Bull problems in the 2022 Formula 1 season. Although Verstappen won the 2022 Formula One season with four races to go and a total of 15 victories, it was his title rival Charles Leclerc who won two of the first three races and started the year as world championship leader.

The Ferrari driver could have won even more in the first phase of the year if his team had not had problems with strategy and unreliability.
Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team also suffered early season retirements due to fuel pump problems, which led to the Dutchman retiring from the races in Bahrain and Australia, which Leclerc won.

Max Verstappen

He also lost out to his rival in qualifying as the RB18 did not suit his driving style at the time.

“Well, it was simply to do with the weight of the car,” explained the world champion in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.

Heavy Red Bull caused big problems
Because the car was well over the minimum weight of 798 kilos at the beginning of the season, which led to additional understeer. The heavy race cars tended to do this in slow corners anyway, which was exacerbated by unexpected handling problems with Pirelli’s 2022 front tyres.

The combination of these problems meant that Verstappen was unable to drive the extremely pointy and agile front end that he prefers. But Red Bull was able to lighten the RB18 and put more load on the front axle to accommodate Max Verstappen’s preferred handling.

“The excess weight made for an understeery balance,” he confirms. “Once we got rid of that, the car became more agile again. You could really use the front end. At the end of the day, that’s also the way to drive a fast car.”

“A car can’t be fast if it understeers. It’s impossible. Especially with the tyres we had this year, which also allow a bit more understeer. You can’t have a car like that,” the Red Bull driver stressed.

Nevertheless, Verstappen still won six races in the first half of the season before the lighter RB18 allowed him to outrun everyone from the summer onwards. Asked how he got used to the early understeer issues, he says:

“To be honest, most of it came from the weight.”

“But the updates we made to the car also helped. It was about understanding the tyres – how we can take better care of them, which was certainly not easy.”

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Phil Mickelson Slim Down
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Phil Mickelson back three decades in ranking

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In part, the fall of Phil Mickelson -52 years old- in recent months in the world ranking would have been the most natural thing. However, ‘Lefty’ won the 2021 PGA Championship when nobody had him on their radar anymore, so this fall was going to be prolonged over time much longer than expected, even more so if he managed to rebound from time to time at some point.
tournament.

Phil Mickelson, statements
The San Diego golfer already alternated with the senior circuit, but he won a ‘major’ and also still competed regularly in PGA Tour events. But then a competitive break came after some comments about Saudi Arabia, his break with the PGA and his move to LIV Golf, which caused him to plummet in the world ranking, since he only played the US Open and the British as scoring tournaments since then, and it didn’t make the cut on any of them.

The consequence is that in this month of December Phil has fallen below position 200 in the ranking and this week he starts it in position 213. In conclusion, the winner of nine ‘majors’ has left the ‘top 200’ after something more than 30 years.

The last time Mickelson had been outside of these positions was before the New England Classic in late July 1992, in which he finished second. Already in March ‘Lefty’ fell out of the ‘top 100’, something that had not happened since 1993.

Philip Alfred Mickelson (known as Lefty for his left-handed swing even though he is right-handed in everyday life) (San Diego, June 16, 1970) is an American golfer. He is one of the best players of his generation and has won six major tournaments: the Masters three times (in 2004, 2006 and 2010), the PGA Championship twice (in 2005 and 2021) and The Open Championship once in the edition of the 2013.

He is one of 13 players in golf history to have won at least 3 of 4 majors and has also finished as runners-up in the US Open Championship six times without ever managing to win this tournament. With his victory in his second PGA Championship on May 23, 2021, he became, at 50 years, 11 months and 8 days, the oldest player to win the record in one of the four major tournaments.

The exceptional performance on the Kiawah Island course – where he beat his compatriot Bruce Koepka and the South African Louis Oosthuizen, twenty years younger after an exciting three-way duel – came eight years after his last major win in the 2013.

Mickelson, who had gradually slipped beyond the hundredth position in the world rankings, has thus risen suddenly to number 32. During his almost thirty-year career he was for over 700 weeks in the top 10 in the world according to the Official World Golf Ranking, arriving on several occasions to occupy the second place, but never the first, in a period dominated by Tiger Woods, of which Michelson was one of the few rivals able to put him in trouble.

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Valentino Rossi becomes BMW M Motorsport ‘works driver’

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Seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi has signed to become an official BMW M ‘works driver’ in addition to his racing commitments for the WRT squad.

Rossi, who retired from MotoGP at the end of 2021, spent this year competing for WRT in the Fanatec GT World Challenge, at the wheel of an Audi.

WRT is switching to BMW for 2023, with Rossi signing to race an M4 in both the Fanatec GT World Challenge and Bathurst 12 Hour.

But the new agreement, directly with BMW, means the 43-year-old Italian will now also be available for further unspecified ‘race and test appearances in BMW M Motorsport racing cars’.

Further details will be announced at a later date.

“I am very proud to become an official BMW M works driver and it is a great opportunity,” said Rossi.

“Last year I started racing seriously in cars and I finished my first season with the WRT team with whom I got on very well and I am very happy that the WRT team chose BMW M Motorsport as a new partner.

“I have already had a chance to test the BMW M4 GT3 twice and the feeling with the car is very good. I think we could be competitive next season.

“Also, BMW M Motorsport has given me the opportunity to race with two very strong drivers next year, Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus.

“I still have a lot to learn and improve, but I hope to be up to the task and fast enough to fight during the race weekends.”

Rossi ‘a living

BMW: Rossi ‘a living legend’
Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, added: “Valentino Rossi needs no introduction. As one of the most successful motorcycle riders of all time, he has made history. His successes on the racetrack and his personality have quite rightly made him a living legend.

“But Valentino has proved that he is also an excellent racer on four wheels. He has shown that car racing has become his second motorsport home, and he brings all his passion, skills and commitment to this new chapter of his career.

“It’s fantastic that Valentino will be joining our BMW M Motorsport family as a new works driver next year. We’re really looking forward to working together – welcome aboard Vale!”

Rossi is the 21st member of the BMW M works driver squad.

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The “refreshing” F1 link propelling one MotoGP team in 2023

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KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer says the Austrian MotoGP squad’s aerodynamic development tie-up with the Red Bull Formula 1 team has been “refreshing”.

As reported by Motorsport.com earlier this year, KTM – which shares a title sponsor in energy drinks giant Red Bull with the reigning F1 champions – has been working closely with the team to develop its aerodynamics packages for 2023.

KTM managed two victories in 2022 courtesy of the now RNF Aprilia-married Miguel Oliveira and scored its highest points tally in the constructors’ standings to finish fourth overall.

But it failed to make the same step forward with its bike as its fellow European brands in Ducati and Aprilia, with Beirer admitting “we didn’t do enough on aerodynamics” as being one of the reasons why it wasn’t as competitive.

To allay this, KTM has been working with the Red Bull F1 team at its Milton Keynes base in the UK to develop the RC16’s aero package for 2023.

Explaining to Autosport how this link up has worked, Beirer said: “How to integrate is quite simple: they develop an aerodynamic package and we put it on the bike.

“I will not tell you any details about how we work, but I can tell you it’s been an amazing experience for us.

“We’ve found some great people on their side, and since the time we worked with them, it’s been so refreshing and the ideas they have, the professional working style and the pure knowledge is incredible.

“So, we enjoy that relationship a lot. That’s not to fix one quick thing, it’s definitely a long-term programme where they are going to help us develop the aero of the bike.

“So, I’m very happy and I feel this is an important part of our future puzzle to have them on our side.

“If you look to the name of the project, it says Red Bull.

In recent years, F1 influence has crept its way into MotoGP, with Aprilia’s CEO Massimo Rivola formerly a sporting director at Ferrari. Under his leadership, he has brought engineers from the F1 paddock to the Aprilia project.

And at Yamaha, it has instructed former F1 engine chief Luca Marmorini to help with its own motor for 2023.

But this bucks a trend where it has long been seen that the F1 world and the bike world struggle to mesh, as the approach needed to develop an F1 car and a MotoGP machine is wildly different.

Beirer warns that MotoGP teams can’t simply open their arms to assistance from F1 in bike development due to the costs involved, while also noting that MotoGP has to keep its identity.

“We must be careful because in Formula 1 you can put one extra zero to any project at least,” he added.

“So, they work with completely different budget situation and power. So, where we have 10 people, they have more than 100. So, the outcome is very different.

“We must be very careful because looking over to an F1 project as a MotoGP manager is like a kid in a candy store.

“Everything you see is so cool and so professional and you want to bring it in. But if you bring it in, to bring in every detail, you need 10 times the budget.

“So, that’s not realistic. So, that’s why we must be very careful to try to not copy Formula 1 in what we do in MotoGP.

“It’s a different world. Formula 1 is Formula 1, and I think MotoGP should not go in competition with Formula 1.

“We should enjoy being the number one sport on two wheels. So, that’s why we are on one side fighting the regulations so that we cannot go too deep.

“But the regulations are what they are, so we have to use what we can.

“I think it’s refreshing to have some F1 people in the paddock, but a bike is not a car so you need to think different.

“So, you need people with a really open mind to adapt to the bike world, but also that’s interesting.

“We are all racing maniacs, they love motorcycle racing, we love Formula 1. Yes, it’s nice to have these F1 people in the paddock but we must be careful about the money we use.”

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Max Verstappen
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Max Verstappen on the ‘big question mark’ Red Bull answered in 2022

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Max Verstappen said every team faced the “big question mark” of the new 2022 regulations, and Red Bull beat the competition.

The fresh Technical Regulations for 2022 were brought in to make the challengers more overtake-friendly, and combined with the budget cap, create a tighter grid.

It was Red Bull though who found the ace in the pack when it came to the new rules, winning 17 of the 22 grands prix, Verstappen taking a record 15 of those.

And as Verstappen pointed out, it was Red Bull who rose to the challenge of making the best out of this blank sheet of paper.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about who designs the best car, who comes up with the more clever ideas,” he told The New York Times.

“At the start of the season, it was all a big question mark for everyone, where you were going to be? Okay, you have your own numbers, but you don’t know what others might have found. From the start, our car was just a better car compared to the competition.”

While Verstappen cruised to his second Drivers’ title, Red Bull also claimed the Constructors’ crown to bring the team their first title double since 2013.

Verstappen pointed out that the team needs two drivers on form to achieve this, and in 2022, feels both he and Sergio Perez were.

“You always need two cars to perform well, and this year we did,” the Dutchman said. “It’s really satisfying for everyone at the factory. They work flat out trying to achieve it.

“Winning the Drivers’ title is amazing, but it gives you even more satisfaction if you can win as a team as well.

“Last year, we lost a lot of points battling. This year, we had a bit more luck, and in general, we were more competitive.”

Red Bull principal Christian Horner believes Verstappen found another level in 2022 as these new regulations came into force, reflecting on a campaign where he saw Verstappen as the “outstanding” driver of the field.

“Winning last year’s championship really took the pressure off his shoulders,” said Horner in an interview with The New York Times. “He just matured and moved up a gear.

“He adapted to the new regulations brilliantly, got his head down and just drove some incredible races. When you look at those Grand Prix victories, wow, there are some incredible races there. He was absolutely the outstanding driver of the season.”

Red Bull need fiercer competition in 2023
Considering the dominance which Red Bull enjoyed in 2022, it can be easy to forget that in the first half of the season, Ferrari arguably had the faster car, but were unable to use it to anywhere near full effect.

The end result was a look that is not great for the new regulations after the first year, with Red Bull well clear of the pack, and a grid which in general spread out slightly again compared to 2021.

So with experience of what works and what does not in this new era of Formula 1, the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes will be confident of taking the fight to Red Bull more consistently in 2023, while Alpine too are talking positively about their upcoming challenger.

A three-way scrap at least in 2023 then would be the perfect sign of progress for these regulations.

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Max Verstappen and Marc Marquez compare bikes and cars – “you have to be a killer”

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Max Verstappen and Marc Marquez have agreed on the key personality trait that champions (on four wheels and two wheels) must have.

Verstappen racked up his second consecutive F1 championship this season but Marquez saw his bid for a seventh MotoGP title halted by injury and his bike’s issues.

Both men are powered by Honda but also share a mind-set, as they discovered when they met.
“What I like about Marc Marquez is that he is a fighter, he never gives up”, Verstappen said. “So he is very determined, he is a tough rider.”

Marquez replied: “Max is ambitious and I like that. Then clearly talented. And a killer. In sports you have to be a killer if you want to be the best.

“The quality I admire most in him? The way to manage pressure. I mean, a lot of riders are fast, they’re talented and they go fast in practice. But then in the race, in the moment, on that day? Managing all that pressure is the hardest thing to do and he does it very well.”

Verstappen agreed: “Well, all in all it’s more or less the same thing for me. Riding the bike is like that, there are many riders able to do a good lap or ride well at a certain level. The race weekend, however, is very different to manage and there comes out really the strongest, the one who has the most talent.

“And Marc has been, even if these last few years have been tough for him because of the injury. Before he got hurt, I woke up in the morning waiting for the race knowing that he would win it 99%. I love MotoGP and it’s incredible, I can’t wait to see him in full form again.”

Max Verstappen and Marquez are also the youngest-ever race winners in their respective categories.

Marquez: “I was 20, now I’m 29, it’s been a long time.”

Verstappen: “I was 18 and now I’m 25, so seven years ago. But I never thought I wanted to be the youngest to win, it’s just something that happened. That time it was great to win the race, statistics are one more thing.”

Marquez: “We will talk about it again only when someone manages to beat that record. It’s life, it happens. Championships are much more important.”

Verstappen’s favourite thing about MotoGP? He says: “I love watching MotoGP and then it’s nice that so many different manufacturers can win a race, I think that’s the best.”

Marquez said about Formula One: “F1 drivers have this incredible ability to keep their concentration high for many consecutive laps, talk to the team, trust them… as a MotoGP rider you find it hard to imagine it, because you are only focused on the race.

“Instead, in Formula 1 you have to be completely focused on the track and trust the wall 100%. They can send me indications at critical moments, maybe if it is crucial for the championship. Otherwise I say they don’t have permission.”

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