RiderTua.com – Marco Bezzecchi is struggling to fight at the front in the 2024 MotoGP season. The VR46 rider has problems with the Ducati GP23, especially with the clutch.
After reaching third place in the riders’ standings in 2023. In Portimao he achieved a slight upward trend, but the distance from the podium remains far and he does not seem to have adjusted to the transition from Ducati GP22 to GP23. Finishing eleventh in the Sprint, sixth in qualifying and Sunday’s race, the first issue to be resolved appeared to be the clutch.
Marco Bezzecchi Has Problems with Ducati Clutch
Marco Bezzecchi
A difficult situation for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team. Since the winter test, the team consisting of two Italian riders Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio has remained in the back group, apart from that they are also behind the other Ducati teams. Lenovo, Pramac and Gresini riders achieved victory and podiums in the first two MotoGP rounds, the VR46 rider’s best position was Bezzecchi’s sixth position at the Portuguese GP. The young rider from Romagna was consistently competitive last year and only fell out of the race for the world title in the final stages. As in 2023, the Tavullia team got a spec Desmosedici last year, but that will be an advantage in their first seasonal race. On the other hand, the one who achieved good results in GP23 was Marc Marquez with Gresini.
The atmosphere was not good at Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing, led by Pablo Nieto and Alessio Salucci, although finishing sixth in Portimao again provided a glimmer of light. Meanwhile, Marco Bezzecchi admitted he made a mistake in the Sprint on Saturday. “Unfortunately I had a bad wheelie which made me lose acceleration. This made me find myself in a big group in the middle.”
He only finished eleventh. For the first time he explained in detail that the starting phase was the most important thing in the results he achieved. “The Ducati clutch has been very tough for me since my first year in MotoGP. Even in Moto2 I was not a hero at the start, but I was going through a very difficult period in MotoGP.”
Since his debut in the premier class in 2022 he has had problems starting races, “I had difficulty starting, I never managed to do three or four identical starts in a row. Last year I managed to be at least fairly consistent, although not very good,” continued Bezzecchi.
Last year he won three main races and one Sprint (with GP22), but with GP23 the difficulty increases, because it requires a different racing style. “I’m still trying to adapt because I can’t race naturally yet,” said the 23 year old rider from the VR46 team.
“Last year my strength was to slow the bike in an inclined position with strong brake pressure. With this bike, the opposite is true. We have to brake well on a straight track and then release the brake so that the bike goes well in the corner. If we hold the brake more for a long time, the bike will be more difficult to corner than last year.”
