MotoGP’s Barcelona finale this weekend will present different conditions to usual, but Honda’s Luca Marini thinks the track will ♛still be “demanding” for tyre consumption.

This year’s Catalan Grand Prix saw ambient temperatures⛎ of 26C earlier this year in May, while this weekend temperatures are expected to be around the mid-to-high-teens.

“For me, it doesn’t change — just there’s more grip,” Marini sꦬaid on how the lower temperatures could affect the track’s characteristics..

▨“But still it’s very demanding for the tyres because of the layout; 𒊎with such long corners on the right side you spin a lot.

“But just a little bit more gr🤡ip, more easy to stop the bike in braking and more speed in the straight with less temperature.”

So, will ♔this weekend be the same as May’s Catalan Grand Prix?

“I don’t know,” Marini said. “It’s difficult to say now🐟. For sure it will help everybody with the grip — everybody struggles a lot with the rear grip.

“So it can 𒉰be an advantage for us, I think — for Honda, for Yamaha. Let’s se🦩e.

“Our bike is completely different sinc🍸e the GP here in Barcelona, so we will check also if our job is in a good direction, and how much the bike has improved.”

The late decision to move the final round of the 2024 season from Valencia — where severe flooꦺding prevented the race from taking place at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as planned — to Barcelona meant that Michelin had to decide on which compounds it would 𒊎take to this race much later than normal.

“For me it doesn’t change anything,” Ma🍎rini said. “So, like this is no problem, if they have to choose the tyres at the beginning of the season or no.

“In my opinion, they made a very good job this year, just the Sepang allocation was the only strange allocation, not a good one. But🍰 all the other races was perfect.”

He added: “I think the fo🦩recast will be fantastic, it looks like we’ve been lucky. Michelin bring us a very good allocation in my opinion.

“We will try to use the double compound in the front tyre, tha🥂t here is always 🌠a problem the left corners — turn two and turn five especially.

“So, it will be interesting to see the soft [compound] front tomorrow morning, how it will be, and in Practice maybe the hard-compound with the double compound could be a very good option for the race൲. So, this I think is the most interesting thing.

“About🦂 the rear, they bring a very good soft [compound] tyre, the softest option that we have during the season and it’s a little bit strange to see such a soft tyre here in Barcelona that is a bit demanding for the tyres. But, for sure to 🌜make good lap times it will be super-fun.”

Marini added that he had suggested in the p🔯ast that manufacturers should be allowed more freedom in choosing their own tyre allocဣations for each race.

“Sometimes I already ask if it would be the best situﷺation to let the manufacturers pick their own tyres,” he said.

“For ex💙ample, t﷽he amount of quantity, if it is possible.

“Also the compounds, because for me, here to have just five medium [compound] fronts, that is for sure the tyre that will be the best tyre — or the easiest tyre with the [single] compound, the tyre that we know every time — to only have five tyres is not enough, because if the double compound doesn’t work we have to sacrifice FP1 with not a perfect tyre just to save more medium options that for sure will be the easiest tyre for 🦩this temperature.

“In my opinion, this can be ꧙a good solu🐓tion, but they don’t want to change.”