Honda introduced a new aero fairing onto Takaaki Nakagami’s LCR-run bike at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, with the package resembling KTM and Ducati’s design philosophy.
For this weekend’s Austrian GP, both Marquez and team-mate Joan Mir have the new kit, with the former spending Friday’s practice sessions running the old package back-to-back with the updated one.
Though feeling like he was getting “better and better” throughout the day on the new aero, Marquez said it has forced him to ride the RC213V in a different way – but one in which its key issues, mainly the bike’s poor acceleration, remains.
“Today was a very demanding day mentally, because with this new aero, the way to ride the bike is completely different,” Marquez, who ended Friday in 13th after getting blocked by Pol Espargaro on a late flying lap in FP2, said.
“I’ve gotten used to the Honda for many years, and especially last year and the first half of this season, and now this aero was completely different.
“But I was so concentrated to take the benefits of this new aero and adapt my riding style. Step by step I was able to do it, and every run I was better and better.
“It’s true I was the only Honda rider who was jumping from one aero to the other. In fact this morning I did a few mistakes, but it [the new aero] changes the braking point a lot, changes a lot the way to approach the corner.
“This afternoon when I jumped to this new aero, my team did a good step and I started to feel better and better. I decided to keep this new aero for the time attack.
“In the first one, I was too on the limit, honestly. On the bike I feel too on the limit.
“It’s a different riding style, different approach to the corners. But the main problems are the same.
“In the acceleration especially, it’s one of our weak points. Not the wheelie, because of this aero, but the [rear] spinning.”
Marquez admits his approach to testing aero is sacrificing results, but he will continue to carry out back-to-back comparisons at the following Catalunya GP.
“Each box decides on a plan,” he added, when asked if Mir should have carried out the same testing approach as him.
“It’s true that in our box we know that from the numbers the new aero should be better in this circuit because it’s stop-and-go.
“But even like this I prefer to sacrifice the result a bit and try to give good information to the engineers.
“For that reason I did the back-to-back [comparison] and tomorrow I will have both bikes with the new aero, because here it has more performance.
“And then in Catalunya circuit, again I will back-to-back to try to understand [the new aero] in fast corners.
“It’s not the best way to achieve a good result, but I believe it’s a good approach. The approach today was no risk and I just pushed the last two runs of FP2.”
