Luca Marini and the Michelin mystery at Motegi: 'Fantastic tyre, we don't understand why

The tire nobody wanted turned out to be the best of the weekend. Luca Marini ends the Japanese Grand Prix in tenth place with a direct question to Michelin: why did the hard rear, brought to Motegi only as a backup, work so well? The Honda HRC Castrol rider spoke at length with the French engineers after the race and urged them to investigate.

Michelin brought the stiff-carcass rear to Japan due to the new asphalt and the circuit’s stop-and-go layout. It was a hybrid solution: the same compound as the soft planned for Motegi, but with the more heat-resistant carcass already used in Austria two weeks earlier. Marini, like all the other riders, had ruled it out even before the weekend.

The scenario changed after the Sprint, when the soft was withdrawn from Sunday’s allocation because it had crumbled in the center for some riders. Everyone was expected to race on the medium, but in Warm Up the hard was tried for the first time and proved to be the best choice. In the end, all the riders fitted it for the Grand Prix.

Marini didn’t hide his enthusiasm: "Fantastic! Incredible. We still don’t understand why—maybe not even Michelin—but it worked so well that if they had told us to push harder to test it on Friday, it would have been the tire for qualifying and for the Sprint as well."

The rider from Tavullia then sent his message to the manufacturer: "Something for them to investigate—it’s a suggestion—because I spoke a lot with Michelin after the race, with the engineers, because in my opinion they produced a fantastic tire for this track. I complained about grip all weekend; for warm-up I put on this hard rear and the grip was incredible. All the bike’s problems were solved; everything worked well," Luca told Crash.net.

A second question remains: "We have this tire at other tracks too, but it has never worked as well as here, so that’s another question." Fabio Quartararo also weighed in on the topic, calling the riders "stupid" for having ignored what turned out to be the best tire.

Marini had the chance to try it already on Friday afternoon: after a crash on the soft he couldn’t afford to use any more of them, but chose the medium. A lesson looking ahead to the switch to Pirelli in 2027, when three compounds will be available at every Grand Prix. "In the future we need to be smart. We have to try everything. Next year we’ll have three compounds every time and we have to take that into account."

The result remains modest: tenth, 25.7 seconds behind the winner Marc Marquez, six points in the standings. "The race went well, but it was nothing special from my point of view," said Marini, who, after the difficulties up to Sunday morning, at least takes away one answer to build on.

-> Follow us on Instagram: @Corsedimoto