Marquez takes big gamble in attempt to salvage MotoGP title shot
Marc Marquez has gone back-to-the-future in a gamble to salvage his quickly diminishing dream of a third consecutive MotoGP championship.
Marquez will race a hybrid Honda RC213V, based around his 2014 championship winning chassis, in Saturday's Dutch TT. The bike features the more forgiving front feel of the 2014 frame combined with the latest rear swing arm for improved grip introduced at Le Mans. The bike will be powered by the 2015 Honda V4 motor now with an updated exhaust system and refined electronics to soften power delivery.
A month ago Marquez claimed that the "too aggressive" character of the motor was central to the unpredictable front handling that triggered a series of front-end crashes. In an about face, Marquez now concedes that the 2014 chassis has "a better feeling" and is more predictable on braking and corner entry.
Marquez's strength is a breathtaking ability to brake deep to corner apex and defy the laws of gravity as he rides the front-end to the limit.
It is understood that development of the Marquez's 2015 chassis focussed on a stiff front-end in a bid to add more precision to corner entry. It appears to have been a step too far and the more predictable turning of the 2014 chassis has boosted Marquez's confidence in advance of the Assen race.
"With the 2014 chassis I can make more mistakes and try to change the line in the middle of the corner and avoid the mistake," Marquez said. "The chassis is better on corner entry. I am able to be more constant on the race pace.
"The other chassis (2015) was critical. It was really good to make one lap really fast but for the race distance it was difficult.
"In practice we worked for the race with used tires and it is long time since we worked like this to choose the best setup."
Marquez is likely to stick with his hybrid Honda for next month's German Grand Prix and an upturn in results will no doubt see him favor the bike for the rest of the season.
Winless since the Americas GP in April, the switch is being made in a bid to halt the current domination by Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Marquez has won just one of the seven races - he has crashed three times - and is 69 points adrift of championship leader Rossi.
Marquez was second fastest after the opening day of free practice at Assen, just 0.139s behind Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa who continues to race his 2015 spec chassis.
In a separate move, Yamaha riders Rossi and Lorenzo will race an upgraded version of the 2015 M1 chassis which has been made available for this race.
