2021, in his first year as Marc Marquez’s teammate, one aspect in particular has caught Pol Espargaro’s eye, and he wants to adopt it for 2022
Following recent positive reports from and around Marc Marquez, the Honda factory team is gearing up to tackle February’s MotoGP tests in Asia with both regular riders. Testing will take place at Sepang (Malaysia) on 5-6 February, before the final days of testing before the 2022 MotoGP season opener (6 March at Losail in Qatar) at Mandalika (Indonesia) from 11-13 March.
Last but not least, Pol Espargaro is hoping that teammate Marquez will share the pits with him as early as the test sessions this time. As a reminder, last year Marquez didn’t get into the action until the third race of the season due to his arm injury.
In the absence of Marquez and his reference data, Espargaro found it even more difficult to get used to the Honda team and in particular to adapt to the RC213V. For when Marquez was in action for at least the majority of the 2021 season’s races, Espargaro learned a few things from him.
“Marc is someone who is used to dealing with low grip,” says Espargaro, explaining, “He has managed to adapt his riding style to these conditions and deliver maximum performance despite low grip. He has been able to adapt really well. Of course, his experience with this bike is of great benefit to him. “
“For me, on the other hand,” Espargaro continued, “it was incredibly difficult, especially at the beginning, to ride the bike in such a way that I could call up the maximum performance even with little grip. In his first few months as a Honda rider, the long-time KTM rider regularly had to struggle with a rear wheel that was spinning too much.
With now a year of experience on the RC213V, Espargaro says: “When it comes to how I need to open the throttle on corner exit, there is still a lot for me to learn. But I’ve been working hard on it and I’m still working to improve in that area.”
The new Honda should help him with that. “I think the new bike will help all of us [Honda riders] to dose the throttle better on corner exit,” Espargaro says after several test rides with the prototype of the 2022 RC213V by now and assumes that “it will help us especially in qualifying.”
And alluding to the longer downtimes of team leader Marquez due to his various injuries, Espargaro adds: “Hopefully he will stay healthy this year and hopefully we can tackle the season together this time.
