Pol Espargaró is set for his second MotoGP season in Repsol Honda colours and thanks to the new RC213V, he is confident of a strong showing.
Having spent much of last year searching for rear grip, a radically updated Honda looks set to provide thanks to a two-year revolution to the engine, chassis and electronics.
“Sure it's gonna help me,” Espargaró said from Tuesday’s 2022 launch. “The bike is a little bit more based on the rear which is something that I was looking for. Definitely, with this low grip on the rear I was struggling quite a lot. Honda discovered that also this was affecting quite a lot to the other riders. So they were trying to just be more on the line of the other bikes, trying to get more grip on the rear.
“We were having quite a lot of crashes by just not warming enough the tyre. So this means that our contact on the rear was too poor and finally this year, the bike is working much better on this aspect. Hopefully we are going to be faster but also safer, which also is important and this is going to help me also on my riding style, which is quite based on the rear and it's going to be great.
“I try every winter to do something different, to approach the season in a different way,” he continued, on preparation for his ninth season in the premier class. “I’ve already been in the World Championship for many, many years and I try to do something different and new to try and make me feel ready and faster just at the beginning of testing in Malaysia.
“This winter has been like all the pre-seasons. Hard training physically quite a lot and I added some motocross training, some flat track and for sure some road bike riding - the CBR in different places, Jerez and Portimao. I try to do as many things as possible and like that I feel I am more ready for the action.”
His debut season with HRC was fraught with issues but as the year went on flashes of success hinted at the potential to come, with pole position at Silverstone followed by a podium at Misano. Valencia looked to be heading for his best weekend of the year until a highside in the final free practice of Saturday morning sent him to the hospital instead of qualifying.
“It was a pity that everything arrived so late,” Espargaró said of his improving performance. “Even knowing that we had quite a lot of problems and still couldn’t improve because we needed to make some bigger changes to the bike and we couldn’t do that until this year, 2022.
“At the end of the year I started to feel much better, much faster, it was a pity to finish like we did in Valencia where I was leading the sessions, in the top three on Friday, but you know it was very good to end the season with that high.
“It made me feel like I could start 2022 in the same way and definitely I feel like I am more ready because last year we could end the problems, we could finish them all and we could think that this year will be great and I think starting with a positive mind, is the way to start the season.
“It was a season with a lot of ups and downs but finally we could end the year doing good results. Honestly, I think Valencia could have been our best result because I was flying there, I was really fast, and I felt ready to achieve something great. But you know at the end we couldn’t take the maximum possibilities of the bike because of my low knowledge of it but I am sure this year we are set to make something great, something better than last year and hopefully we can fight for that first victory in MotoGP.
“[Honda] contracted me to be on the podium and to try to fight for the championship,” the 30-year-old continued. "As Marc [Marquez] said, to be in this team you must be fighting for the championship and I fully agree. Last year I didn't feel ready. This year I know the team better. The bike is really good. I feel ready to achieve this step in my career. Everyone is super involved in that project on my side. I'm fully on the goal of being World Champion one day here in Repsol Honda and hopefully I can achieve it this year and I'm going to fight for it from the first race in Qatar. I will try to be ready.
“Hopefully a lot of wins, a lot of podiums, a lot of pole positions, great battles – hopefully with my teammate which I am pretty sure he is going to be on top.
"It’s my target since I joined Honda, my target is not to be in the top five, it’s to win races and try to win the World Championship. That’s why I wake up every morning and I train like I do, it’s the only thing I am thinking about every day. I am set to do it.
“First of all, it has to be your teammate!” he said of his main challenger in 2022. “This is one thing that all the riders will say but it’s real and in my case, I am in the hardest place because my teammate is one of the greatest riders in MotoGP history. It means my job is going to be harder than the job of the other riders, but this is also going to give me more motivation. It’s not the same as trying to beat a rider for tenth as trying to beat the number one. This is, as I said, a huge motivation for me and I am going to try and do it.”
