Michael van der Mark says there is no pressure on him to perform on his MotoGP debut in Malaysia this weekend as he substitutes for the unwell Jonas Folger at Tech3 Yamaha.
The World Superbike podium finisher was set to make his MotoGP debut at Aragon at the factory Yamaha team as Valentino Rossi’s replacement, but had to stand down when the Italian made a sensational comeback from a broken right leg just 23 days prior.
Folger has been absent since Motegi due to suspected Epstein Barr virus and was replaced by Kohta Nozane, followed by Broc Parkes last weekend in Australia.
Van der Mark – who is currently sixth in the WorldSBK standings – feels the pressure on him is lessened by riding the Tech3 M1 rather than the factory team bike, and hopes his prior Sepang experience from WorldSBK will aid him this weekend.
“It’s more the people who make the pressure,” van der Mark told crash.net on Thursday.
“Of course, when you ride Valentino’s bike you feel more pressure, but at the end it’s still a bike.
“There’s not a lot of pressure, it’s just an amazing opportunity for me to finally get this ride.
“It’s a really difficult track, but to be honest it’s also one of my favourites. Hopefully this makes it a little bit easier this weekend.”
This weekend will represent the first time the Dutchman has ridden with carbon brakes and Michelin tyres, but believes his experience of different bikes this season from switching between WorldSBK, the Suzuka 8 Hours and the All–Japan Superbike series will allow him to adjust quickly.
“It will be the first time (I have used carbon brakes and Michelin tyres) and the guys just said to be careful for the first lap,” he said.
“At the end they are brakes, a lot stronger of course, it just takes laps to learn.
“Also the tyres will be different, but this year I rode many different tyres as well, so I will hopefully adapt soon to the Michelins as well.
“To be honest this year I rode many different bikes because the Japanese Superbike was different again.
“I hope it will help me and I think it will because you start to think only about the big things and not all the small things.
“Sometimes it’s good to change my bikes during the season, sometimes it’s not so good, but this year has been really good because I gained so much experience, which we transferred into the Superbike.”
