After Jorge Martin narrowly missed out on the MotoGP title at the season finale in Valencia last year, the Pramac protégé never made a secret of his desire to reach for the stars again in 2024. And at the winter test drives in Sepang and Qatar, the 26-year-old Madrilenian was in strong early form for a long time, riding on an equal footing with top favorite Francesco Bagnaia and his Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini. But then came the fifth and final day of pre-season testing and the picture changed.
On that Tuesday in mid-February (February 20th) in Qatar, Martin suddenly couldn’t get past seventh place in the final standings and was a whopping 0.514 seconds behind Bagnaia’s best time, after finishing second at worst on the previous four test days and never more than 0.220 seconds ago. But that wasn’t enough, even in the long run simulation the Pramac driver suddenly lagged behind the top drivers after he had always been one of the strongest. Why was that the case? On the final day of testing, Martin complained about chattering problems – i.e. strong, high-frequency oscillations or vibrations that occurred when driving his Ducati Desmosedici GP24.
Jorge Martin suffers from chattering: Fear of Qatar GP!: (06:48 mins)
It was precisely these chattering problems that gave the 25-year-old title contender a big headache in the past few days and weeks, because the Pramac team initially couldn’t explain the occurrence and therefore didn’t have a solution ready at the end of the winter tests. As Martin revealed on the media Thursday before the Qatar Grand Prix, there was then an in-depth investigation into founder Paolo Campinoti’s Italian racing team, but the origin of the chattering could not be clearly identified there either.
The first rides in the first free practice session of the 2024 MotoGP season on Friday afternoon were anxious moments in the Pramac camp. At the end of the session, however, we could breathe a sigh of relief: Martin not only set the best time in training, but was also significantly faster than his GP24 colleagues Bastianini (0.326 seconds) and Bagnaia (0.597 seconds). “It’s actually not that important whether you come first, fifth or whatever in the first training session. The important thing is that I feel strong and we were able to improve our problems from the test. I’m confident. The bike is ready “I’m ready,” said the Madrilenian with a broad chest on Friday evening.
Jorge Martin was the fastest MotoGP rider on Friday in Qatar, Photo: LAT Images
Jorge Martin confident before Qatar GP: I’m ready!
So are chattering problems a thing of the past? “Yes, almost,” Martin concludes. “It’s now very similar to what we had last year with heavily used tires. That’s relatively normal and much better. We also have a few ideas if things get worse again tomorrow, if we drive faster than today. Maybe it’ll come back then and then it’s certainly not a bad thing to have a few ideas that we can try out if we find the time tomorrow. If not, that’s not a bad thing, then I can still run with it.”
The final uncertainties still remain at Pramac Ducati, but the biggest difficulties appear to have been resolved. It will become clear at the latest in qualifying on Saturday afternoon whether Martin can actually attack again without any worries. Of course, we are ticking the first pole position hunt of the MotoGP year 2024 live again. Just click in if you don’t want to miss anything!