The KTM rider is quite satisfied with the two pre-season tests carried out by him and his team, but remains cautious about the progress of the machine for 2019.
It’s a Pol Espargaro over-motivated who arrived at the pre-season tests having scored the very first podium of his career and the first for KTM at the last Grand Prix of the season in Valencia. The first test, which took place last week on the Valencian circuit, was positive for the Spanish driver who finished thirteenth in the combined times, eight tenths off the best time.
The second, organized this time on the Jerez track this week, turned out to be a little more complicated in terms of results. Espargaró actually finished in seventeenth position, more than a second behind the reference time.
It must be said that KTM decided to take advantage of this final test to try new things en masse, and that is ultimately what the Spaniard has to say about these two days. He was never really able to concentrate on his speed, as there was so much data to collect: “I couldn't say what we did, not because it's a secret, but because I don't remember, we tried so many things!” It was really a very intense day, we tried the bike from A to Z. Yesterday, on the other hand, we rode long distances on worn tires and I think our pace is not bad. The problem is that we encounter difficulties whenever we try to do a quick ride.
We have seen that other drivers can attack and ride at a high pace, in 1'38 or even more. For our part, we have not yet achieved this, but it would be extremely important. We obviously want to make progress in this area. This is our weak point at the moment.
We didn't take too many risks because we wanted to avoid falling. It's just before winter break and I didn't want to break anything. However, there is still much work to be done. We regularly run in 1'39, but when I attack, it stays in those times, even on new tires. I rode in 1'39, but we should have gone down to 1'38.5 or 1'38.6. We didn't succeed but we know why and we have to work on it.
We tried a lot without really focusing on fast laps, and that's kind of our problem. We are trying to improve the bike in so many areas that it is never the same throughout the day and that is problematic when trying to go fast because the limit is difficult to find in such conditions. »
We will therefore see on February 6 at Sepang if all this data will have been useful to KTM engineers to further develop their 2019 machine.
