Jorge Martin may not have had the outright speed of Pecco Bagnaia in the 2024 MotoGP title fight. But the Spaniard turned last year’s big weakness into this year’s big strength.
At the start of the calendar year, there were plenty of reasons to think Jorge Martin wouldn’t win the MotoGP World Championship. For a start, he remained in a satellite team. Satellite riders don’t win titles in the MotoGP era. There was the feeling that Ducati didn’t value him enough to place him in its factory team (which came to fruition in June). And the rider himself was facing a crippling period of self-doubt before a wheel had even been turned.
“This year in January, I was really struggling with my mental health,” he revealed after his title triumph. “Last season was great. Even after being second, I was quite happy. But in January I started to have a lot of fears, like ‘I will never be champion in MotoGP’.”
Conquering these fears was key to this successful campaign. Martin ironed out so many weak points from the year before. Unlike 2023, the Spaniard wasn’t the fastest man over 20 rounds – that honour fell to 11-time winner Pecco Bagnaia. Yet as the Italian fell into Martin’s habits from the year before, crashing rashly on seven occasions, Martin went the other way. Over nine months he was the smartest and, crucially, the calmest in the premier class.
After speaking with several figures in the 26-year-old’s close circle, AMCN can reveal this is how he did it.
“Training the most important muscle”
Martin proved he had the speed by scoring an incredible pole position and podium in just his second premier class race. And 2023 showed he had it within him to fight for championships. Yet last season showed plenty of weaknesses: namely, an arrogance at forever wanting to show his superiority.
“Maybe being too good at that point gave me overconfidence,” he said at the end of last year’s ultimately unsuccessful campaign. “I said, ‘I can pull away and win by five seconds (Indonesia). I can win with another tyre to the others (Australia).” Such pathos paved the way for defeat in crucial moments. That was addressed over the winter off-season.
After his crisis of confidence in January, Martin and his team sought out some help. “We all felt there were some areas to improve, especially in terms of managing his mind and managing pressure,” personal manager Albert Valera told AMCN. “The brain is probably the most important muscle in the human body and he figured out that he had to train it.
“He started working with a good professional in that area. They’ve been working together all season and we can see the results. It’s a very demanding sport mentally, and he got himself ready for it. We’ve seen some changes from him on track. He’s more constant and he can manage some situations better, where he has to make a decision – for instance, finishing second instead of risking too much for a victory. That’s what brought him to this point.”
Working with his mental coach and recalibrating his outlook proved crucial as he bounced back from key disappointments before maintaining his cool in the final slog as he and chief rival Pecco Bagnaia repeatedly traded blows. A new-found ability to cope with the strain that comes with added media attention week-in, week-out also paid off.
“Thanks to my coach I improved a lot,” Martin said. “(After a while) I was more focused on the hope of winning, than on the fear of losing. I mean, if I lose, okay, I’m not dying. But I was with a lot of hope of winning. Not only for me, but for my team, for my people, for my family. So this helped me a lot.”
One thing Martin had to contend with was an overactive mind. Holding a 24-point advantage coming into the final weekend, he admitted taking to the track on Friday was welcome. “My head’s a machine of predicting the future! So I’m always trying to analyse. But in everything in my life. This season I worked a lot on that to try to calm down, to try to live more in the moment, rather than the future.”
“In the past it was more about instinct; now he’s in control”
Martin may have won a Moto3 world title in 2018 but the pressure that comes with contending for motorcycle’s top prize is a whole different sport. The Spaniard admitted he lost the enjoyment when scrapping with Bagnaia in the final part of 2023 – he was just too tense, which eventually showed in crucial outcomes in Qatar and Valencia.
With that experience under his belt, Martin was a completely different character in the 2024 run in to season end. “I sleep much better now,” he revealed in Japan. “Last season was really difficult to manage. It was like a nightmare. Even if I was winning, I didn’t enjoy it at all.”
This time around, he viewed the exhaustive run of flyaway races differently, and had gained some crucial perspective. “It’s a big privilege to be here again,” he said in Malaysia. “Last year I lost it and nothing happened to me, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I’m here now.”
There’s no question this added calmness helped him keep a clear eye on the job at hand. At crucial times in Japan, Australia and Thailand, he held a points advantage over Bagnaia. And not winning at each venue was not the end of the world if the reigning world champion finished just ahead or behind. “The biggest step (Jorge) made is the mental side,” crew chief Daniele Romagnoli told AMCN. “He’s now able to control his emotions much better and the approach to the race and qualifying. He’s able to manage more his limit, controlling things well. If he gets passed, he doesn’t try to pass back immediately.
“In the past it was more about instinct. Now he is more in control even if there were mistakes in Jerez, Sachsenring and Misano. Japan was very important. Our target was to start on the first row but he was 11th (in qualifying). He recovered and even tried to catch Pecco but saw it was too risky and settled for second. In Phillip Island, of course, the plan was to win the Sprint and the race. But we said before the race on Sunday, ‘If you can win, go for it! But if something happens and Marc (Marquez) is there, don’t do stupid things, and bring the points back to the garage’.”
Martin’s newfound ability to manage the pressure even drew the praise of his rivals. “For sure Jorge’s grown,” said Cristian Gabarrini, Bagnaia’s crew chief. “If you look at the numbers, he won a lot less races than Pecco but he’s leading the championship. That means he’s very, very solid. He’s fast in every situation. I think he worked a lot on his mind to be more focused and have less up-and-down. The results are right.”
Valera believes a more settled personal life has also contributed to a greater feeling of calm. “He’s always been a very social guy. I’d say in the past he had maybe too many friends for a professional athlete. He’s closed more the circle around him and now is with his real friends, which are the good ones, which he needs. I’d say he’s now able to enjoy a calmer life thanks to Maria (Monfort), his girlfriend. When you’re single you try to spend more time with your friends. But I think Maria has helped him a lot to settle and relax.”
Ducati benefits
It would be remiss not mention Ducati’s role in Martin’s season. Few in recent history have been so comprehensively dominated by one manufacturer. The Italian brand won 19 out of 20 feature races and 17 Sprints from 20. And, unlike 2023, its new package was a clear step forward from last year’s model. Along with Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, the Spaniard was able to take full advantage of the marvellous GP24, which gained in braking stability and acceleration over the GP23.
What’s more, Ducati’s open system, whereby all eight riders have access to the others’ data, was mostly a help. “It’s amazing to watch,” said Martin back in May. “I can see Pecco is stronger on braking. Marc is stronger on entry. I am faster on exit. So at the end of the day, you try to take details from everyone. I think the key of our performance also is because we have the others’ data and we can learn where we struggle. But it’s also a pity that when you have this (advantage as) they catch up!”
Romagnoli even indicated that being privy to his main rival’s data meant Martin and Bagnaia almost moulded into the same rider. “Pecco (has) always (been) good in braking. We’ve worked with Martin to improve this. If you check the data of the two riders, they look the same. They’re checking each other, copying each other and the riding becomes more similar. In the past we were checking to improve one tenth. Now it’s to improve milliseconds. These two riders are pushing the limits.
“The team works so well because we know each other so well. We have a base setting for this rider. For four years we’ve built a very good setting. So it feels like the team was a bit more in control when he arrives in the garage.”
The Sachsenring
From Martin’s early moments in the world championship, it was clear he had a penchant for delivering in moments of adversity. “We always knew Jorge had a huge talent,” said Valera. “His (fighting) spirit is something inherent, that he had since he was a kid. We could see in Moto3 when he broke his wrist (in the Czech Republic, 2018), came back in Austria (one week later) and did the podium. We could also see it in Portimao (in 2021) when he broke nine bones in his first year in MotoGP and then he won in Austria. All these situations made him stronger mentally.”
That experience was crucial to him bouncing back from disappointments this campaign. It spoke of Martin’s strength that he responded each time after a mistake. He bounced back from a fall in Jerez with a double win in France. He shook off the disappointment of missing out on Ducati’s factory team after Mugello by taking a pair of seconds at Assen. And he waltzed to victory in Indonesia a day on from carelessly throwing a Sprint win away.
The biggest response, however, came after the German GP. Having scored pole and won the Sprint convincingly, Martin was two laps from completing a perfect weekend before a crash out of the lead saw the old doubts return.
Yet Romagnoli believes a set-up change to correct Michelin’s grippier 2024 rear tyre adding pressure to the front was key for the rest of the campaign. “A big change was after the Sachsenring (crash),” he said. “Of course, I can’t tell you what we did. But we analysed the manoeuvre that led to the crash – the settings or perhaps something with the electronics. I never want to point the finger at a rider because he’s always doing his best. But we saw that the rear was pushing the front and there was big understeer in that moment.
“So, we worked on a few solutions and moved our base setting (accordingly). The level these guys are riding at is so high. They’re always on the limit. But it looks like this change made it a bit safer when he was entering the corner. Last year we were a bit more stable. It took us longer this year to find our base setting but from Misano (to the end) we used basically the same setting.”
Once again Martin was able to apply great perspective at the following round in England. “The Sachsenring situation was not that bad just like now (at Silverstone) is not that good. The important thing is to keep improving, keep learning,” he said at the time.
It was an outlook that served him well in 2024. And one that should help as he embarks on an even bigger challenge in 2025: turning his new Aprilia into a title contender.
