New factory Honda MotoGP signing꧟ Luca Marini didn’t have to think for long when askeไd to pick a Repsol rider from the past who has inspired him the most.

“My brother, it’s easy! He had a🌃 great history with these colours,” Ma💙rini told MotoGP.com during today’s Madrid team launch.

Valentino Rossi won the 20♔02 and 2003 MotoGP titles for Repsol Honda be🐻fore switching to Yamaha.

But Marinཧi’sജ second choice of inspiration was not a Repsol champion.

“For sure also Dani Pedrosa, who worked a lot of tim🌃e with this team,” Marini said.

“I like him a lot, he's a good guy and when we talk in the test it's very interesting every time. S🐼o I will try to take some inspiration from him also.”

Pedrosa won 31 race💞s as a Repsol Honda rider from 2006 to 2018, making him the most succe🉐ssful premier-class competitor not to claim the world title.

Marini steps into the rﷺevised factory Honda colours, in place of Marc Marquez, for what will be his fourth premier-class season.

“It's💖 like a childhood dream,” Marini said. “I'm really pleased to work with this factory, I think we made a good step forward in this test.

“Sure, we will have something more to do more in the Qatar test but we'll be ready for th🎉e first race𒉰.

“It will be a long season, very interesting in my opinion. I want to arrive at a goodꦍ level in the middle part of the season. I thi🎶nk we can improve a lot.

“There is a lot of margin on all 𓆏the areas of the bike and also I can adapt better to the♉ bike.”

Marini feels the new colours also ꧂rﷺepresent the start of a new era.

"When I was a childꦚ, I always saw a lot of orange and a big Repsol logo, so it's something new. But also it represents the start of a new project, a new era of Honda, fighting to𝔍 come back on top."

Marini, whose Duca🐭ti experience is highly valued🌟 by HRC, was 19th in the opening Sepang test. 

The finaജl pre-season test takes place in Qatar on Monday and Tuesday.