Martín: "It seemed like it was going to be my worst season and it ended up being the best"

December 17, 2021

Jorge Martín surprised the paddock when he took pole and a podium finish in his second MotoGP race at the Doha Grand Prix in April, but at the following round in Portugal he suffered a hair-raising accident during FP3.

The man from Madrid suffered multiple fractures and had to undergo surgery, missing four races and dragging discomfort in the wrist for much of the year.

However, the young man from Pramac won the Styrian GP also starting from pole, and finished the year in ninth position in the championship, on an official Ducati.

“Well, it’s been a very nice season, a very long season for me, with a lot of ups and downs,” said Martin when asked by Motorsport.com to review his debut year in MotoGP.

“I think it’s been the best and the worst season at the same time. With the injury it seemed like it was going to be the worst of my career, but in the end it was the best, so I had a really bad time and then I came back with a win, podiums, poles, always fighting for the top five when I finished the races”.

“I think we are strong, we have done a great job and we are ready for the next season.”

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

The one from San Sebastián de los Reyes reveals that one of his biggest problems this season was the large volume of information about the bike that he had to try to transmit to the team every time he returned to his box during each session. He also pointed out that Michelin tire management was the most difficult thing to understand in his move to MotoGP.

“The learning process has gone very well,” he said. “I think I’m still learning a lot. In every race I try to understand new things. I’ve also improved the method of how I talk to the team.”

“It’s difficult because every time I stop in the box I try to understand too much information and it’s not easy to convey all that to the team. Maybe I finish the day and before dinner I remember something like ‘oh, in this corner we have to change this ‘. So it’s not easy, it’s a lot of information and it’s hard to talk about it directly after training. But every weekend I’m getting better with the [engine] maps, with the engine braking, with the power, I’m getting a lot better at what I want”.

“I think the hardest thing this year has been understanding the tyres, because I still have a hard time managing them. I tried to start the last few races a bit slower, but I still didn’t get the tires to work well. So we need to understand this and see how we can improve.” for next year,” he stresses.