Changing machinery in MotoGP is always a challenge – in a sport where millimetres count, a new machine has different characteristics, different strengths, and different limits. After a tough season of injury struggles and bad luck, reigning Champion Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) says he’s still finding those differences and limits on the Aprilia – and Balaton Park is an opportunity to simply take the track as it comes.
“I used to ride another bike in the past, and I have a lot of references – from braking points to how to go into the corners, how to exit,” explains the #1. “When I arrived at the same track the next year, I tried to do the same things, but they didn't work.
“I need to change my style a bit with this bike. Maybe the strong point is a different one, or the weak point is a different one.” At a new circuit like Balaton Park, part of that problem immediately solves itself – there is nothing to compare it to. “Here, without any references, I can just ride, without anything in my head, and I can work on my feeling rather than changing the bike.”
Still, the #1 won’t put a target on it in terms of a finishing position, focusing instead on maintaining the mentality he started the Austrian GP with last weekend.
“I don’t know what to expect from my side. I want to focus on myself because, even if that’s what my mentality was in Austria, as soon as I got closer to the front, my expectations were a bit too high. I wanted to do more than I could in the first few laps then everything became more difficult. I have no expectations in terms of results. Whatever comes will be good. I have expectations with my work, finding my limit with the bike, finding what I need to be faster and that’s the only target.”