After a first year of adaptation to the demands of the RC213V, Pol Espargaro faces the new 2022 season with renewed enthusiasm. After a winter break that “always takes a long time” in which he has not wasted time riding with flat track, motocross, racing motorcycle and another series of disciplines, pole is convinced that he can squeeze the potential out of the new and improved Sling. The step forward in terms of engine or rear grip was already palpable in the sherry test and was confirmed last weekend in Sepang. “The bike is different and on the circuits we’ve ridden it has given us positive feedback,” he admits ‘Polyccio‘.
“We are not sure where the others have improved, at what point they will be faster. We have to be cautious with expectations & rdquor; points out the youngest of the Espargaró, who is clear about which area can be key to his aspirations: “Without a doubt , for me the rear grip is essential. Mark has the ability or has adapted in these ten years with the Sling to be able to work with a smaller grip, he likes it and feels comfortable, but it’s hard for me and for the other riders too, so Honda has worked with the absence of Mark a little more in that aspect and they have improved the bike a lot. We have much more contact, not just grip, but general contact on the rear wheel, whether entering or leaving the corners, and that, in the end, I don’t know if it will give us a lot of speed, what it will give us is a lot of security, something also very important”, underlines Pol in statements to the official MotoGP website.
The balance in 2021 was irregular, but the pole and the ‘top five’ at Silverstone and second place on the podium Emilia-Romagna GP, make that pole I hope to continue progressing with the Honda. That, of course, as long as it has continuity. “We have spoken many times this year before starting the season with Alberto (Puig, Repsol Honda team manager) and the message is clear: we have to keep pushing, we have to be at the top, where these colors deserve to be, and there is no another path that does not go through being among the top five or three”, says the rider from Granollers, who concludes his current contract in 2022.
“It is clear that this year is important for me because last year was a year of experience with a bike that was not at its best level. This year is very different, the bike is very different. we start with Mark also in the preseason, which will help us develop the bike. I start with much more experience, I know much more about the bike and the team, I already know what I am going to find and I am in a position to achieve the results I was fighting for at the end of the year”.
Future with Honda
If you achieve your goals, ‘Polyccio’ trust to extend your project with Slingwhere he feels comfortable after leaving behind his four-year stage in KTM: “Sling It makes me feel comfortable, it gives me the confidence I need to be able to continue together for more than these two years of contract and I firmly believe that we make a good tandem, so my intention and I also believe that of Sling right now is to continue together in the future, but it is clear that this has to go hand in hand with the results that we have to achieve this year, on my part and on the part of Sling. At the moment, there are no doubts: We are united on this path.”
“I knew it would be a hard road at the beginning, as it has been, but, without a doubt, both parties are willing to give the maximum this start of the season and in the middle of the season to be able to close another contract and that is what I want and that the factory wants, so, until the contrary is said, we will continue in this line”, he sentences about his future. In the short term, the ’44’ hopes to benefit from the return of Marquez: “For me and for all Sling it is very important that Mark this one here. First, because he is a rider who this year is going to do ten years with the bike. Ten years with a motorcycle allows you to have brutal knowledge about the entire process that he has had. In terms of improving it, understanding the engineers and knowing how to deal with the issue of developing a motorcycle, I think that right now in Sling there is no one better than him. At experience level, Mark it’s crucial. And then obviously with the speed that he has and how fast he is, he takes the factory to another level.”
“It’s not the same when you’re driving and you see that a driver of the same brand is capable of doing things that you thought couldn’t be done, that makes you improve a lot, at the level of results, but also at the level of driving” , ensures polewho makes his partner’s level as positive as possible: “For me it is important that he is Mark. It’s always positive, not negative. I don’t look at it from a more results-oriented point of view, but more by improving my driving, which is Mark It helps that I have to get involved much more, that I have to make a lot of effort and that leads me to be a better driver. Therefore, for me the return of Mark It’s a positive thing, for the factory too and we’ll see if we can use all this to be faster in pre-season and start the season much more mature with this new bike than we would start without it.”