Luca Marini: Valentino Rossi will 'bring us some magic' by attending races
The young Italian could only qualify 17th, behind even rookie VR46 team-mate Marco Bezzecchi on the 2021 bike, before salvaging 13th place in the race.
"The Qatar GP was a disaster! All the weekend. We had too many problems, we didn't work enough for the race. So it was difficult," Marini said at Mandalika on Thursday.
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The GP22 rider has fond memories of the new Indonesian circuit from February's test, when he was fastest of all on day two and left the test an impressive third overall.
"I'm happy to be back in Indonesia. It's a track I love, the layout is incredible. I really enjoyed it in the test. I hope to restart with a good feeling like in the test and be fast from the beginning," he said.
"For sure, we will start here how we finished the test. The full package we finished with here, we will start with from FP1. It’s a little bit different from what we used in Qatar.
"Let’s see if this works well, like at the test, but it will be more difficult because the temperature is higher and also Michelin changed the casing of the tyres compared to the test.
"When the tyres change the feeling can be different, so I need to understand this new casing and we will see after FP1-FP2.
"I think we can do a step forward compared to Qatar."
Given the difficulties experienced with dialling-in the new GP22 in Qatar, would Marini find it useful to have older brother, team owner and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi present to offer advice and ideas on race weekends?
"Sincerely, I don't know, because we are in MotoGP and the level of the people that are working here is really high," Marini replied. "For sure [Rossi's] experience is unbelievable. Maybe he's the guy with the most experience to have been in this paddock, so he knows a lot of things.
"But my level and the level of my crew is also really high. I don’t know sincerely. We will see when he comes. For sure he will come for 3-4 races this year, maybe more. We will see if maybe just for his presence in the box makes something special, bring us some magic that he always had in his career!"
