MotoGP: Is Pol Espargaró the Johann Zarco of KTM? “Testing more to accelerate the development of the bike will be part of his job”

Has Pol Espargaró returned to the KTM fold to be the Johann Zarco of Ducati? The question is relevant when we listen to the team manager of the official team of the Austrian brand, Francesco Guidotti, about the Spaniard. What's more, the profile between the two drivers is surprisingly close. Both are barely in their thirties, have never done better than fifth at the end of a MotoGP season and, above all, have no victories in the premier category...

Pol Espargaro et Johann zarco, same fight ? To bring them together a little more we could point out that both occupied the Tech3 box. For Aleix's younger brother, official Aprilia, he even returns there this year under the GASGAS colors after having experienced the Yamaha in 2014. They also went through KTM. A complicated parenthesis for the Frenchman while Pol Espargaro was one of the first to believe in the RC16 project. It was her debut in 2017, gave her her first podium at Valencia in 2018 and was the first to put her on pole position in Styria in 2020.

That being said, Pol Espargaro comes out of two years with Honda – a brand also touched by Johann Zarco -, a period marked by only two podiums. It is therefore with joy that he finds the family of Mattighofen and especially since he will work there again with his former team leader KTM Paul Trevathan.

"It's part of the job, especially because Pol Espargaró asked for it"

Enough to get back in the saddle, certainly, but not only that. Francesco Guidotti indeed said it, if KTM has changed three of its four drivers, it is because the brand's engineers also want feedback from champions who have experienced other horizons. So we will listen Jack Miller when he talks about Ducati and Pol Espargaro when he remembers Honda.

The fact remains that the RC16 is not exactly unknown to the Spaniard, who will therefore also be used as a development driver... The Italian team manager thus clarified on crash.net : " yes, it's part of the job, especially because he asked for it ", said Guidotti about Espargaró's developmental role. “ I mean, he was complaining last year that he started the season with the bike and ended with the same bike and he used to have new parts every race at KTM ».

« It won't be like three years ago, but yes, it's part of Pol's job to test more », confirms Guidotti which ends: “ it won't be the case for Augusto Fernandez because we need to give him time to understand MotoGP before testing parts, but with Pol, we really count on his experience and his approach to racing to accelerate the development of the motorcycle ».