It had been understood for a while that Pol Espargaró and Honda would part ways at the end of this year, marking the end of a two-year lease, tinged with mutual disillusionment. It was also planned that the Spaniard would return to his first love KTM with an RC16 that he saw born. But the sensitive brother of an equally sensitive Aleix had even better: he will find himself at Tech3, under a new GasGas label, with a dedicated team made up of old acquaintances. Everything remains to be done, but he is delighted. It remains to know the name of his teammate…
Pol Espargaro is a relieved man since last Friday at the Red Bull Ring. Its 2023 future has in fact finally frozen there. And it will be a great reunion: “ It's great that I'm joining the GASGAS factory team, it's what I was looking for. I'm going to a factory team, I'll have a factory contract and that means I will have the same parts and the same bike as the official KTM riders, and that means a lot to me » comments the pilot of 30 years. « When you spend four years in one place, you make a lot of friends, a lot of people become like family. Even though I'm going to be on the GASGAS team, I will have some of the people who were with me at KTM ».
For the Catalan, beyond “ to get results » on the KTM RC16 with the logo GASGAS, for him the important thing will be to “ to feel part of it, to develop a motorcycle that I saw begin ». Then he pulled himself together: “ but now I have to put all these emotions aside. I'm trying to improve my situation with Honda, we have to improve the results by the end of the year, that's my job now ».
He gives his roadmap until the end of this campaign: “ I just want to give Honda as much information as possible to know how to be fast with this bike, next year will be another year, now I have to focus on the Repsol Honda team because they are giving everything to improve the bike ».
Pol Espargaró returns, and Miguel Oliveira? “ I don't have an offer on the table yet I can't say yes or no«
Looking back on its future linked to GASGAS, Pol Espargaro made a positive assessment of seeing again some of the technicians and engineers with whom he had already raced at KTM before venturing into Honda : " the most important thing for me was to have the mechanics and technicians that I had at KTM, with Pol Trebatán, with Oli, my suspension engineer. I wanted to have not only the bike but the human team around me, and I'm going to have it. An official bike in an official team, that's all I asked for and in such a difficult situation in the paddock, after seeing both Suzukis leave the MotoGP World Championship, that's all I could hope for ».
The question of his future teammate remains to be resolved. Until Pete Beirer affirms that nothing was lost with Miguel Oliveira, we imagined Remy Gardner renewed, which would have positioned Pol Espargaro as a natural leader. If the Portuguese stays and also returns to Tech3, it will be less obvious, and already because Olive tree is at the head of four victories in MotoGP, including two with Tech3, against zero for Pol Espargaro. But nothing is done, if we are to believe Olive tree : " I don't have an offer on the table yet “, he told Spielberg on Friday. “ But of course they stepped up their efforts to keep me in the KTM family. But right now I can't say yes or no ". To be continued…
