Pol Espargaró is now a Honda rider and he is relishing his new challenge which should lead him, at one point or another, to face Marc Marquez with the same equipment. However, he would approach what awaits him with a little more serenity if he were a Grand Prix winner. But this is not the case, and it is even worse than that because the one who was at the start of the KTM project in MotoGP leaves it without having been one of the three successes acquired by Binder and Oliveira. A real lack and frustration brought back from Brno if we refer to his own words…
Pol Espargaro has difficulty defending himself: having left KTM without realizing the year in which the RC16 opened its victory counter will always be a shortcoming. A frustration that was decided in one place, Brno, with a driver, his former teammate at Mattighofen, Johann zarco : " in the Czech Republic, before Johann Zarco pushed me off the track, I was in a position to fight for victory ", remember Espargaró of the Brno race.
But there were still other occasions: “ in Austria, I was there until the last corner, I fought with Jack Miller. Even in the first Austrian race before the red flag came, the luck was there,” he said, listing two other chances of winning. “So there were match points. But for some reason we couldn't convert any of them ».
« The opportunity to win was there and that's what I'll take with me in the end », Resigned declared the Spaniard. “ Certainly, I would have liked to celebrate this first victory with KTM, there is no doubt about it. But afterwards I didn't feel the clear advantage that we had in Brno and also in Spielberg with the bike, the setting, the tires ».
Espargaró now has to do it on a Honda
However, Pol Espargaro don't leave empty-handed. He reached the podium five times in third place and finished the season MotoGP as the best driver KTM in fifth position. Will the first victory in MotoGP now be won at Honda ? Without Marc Marquez, who had to take a break due to injury, the manufacturer proved unable to win in 2020. And the past has shown that even experienced drivers have struggled to move up to the Honda, the latest being Jorge Lorenzo in 2019.
But the youngest I will espargaro do not stop at this observation on Motosport-total : " most guys in the MotoGP paddock are waiting for such an opportunity. So I can't say no. It's one of the best motorcycles in the world if you look back in history. And I can't wait to see how quickly I can adapt and get the results I envision ". First response in mid-February for the first tests of the year Sepang.
