Pol Espargaró will ride for the next two seasons with KTM, a factory where he was already for a long period between 2017 and 2020, before signing for Honda, where he has not been able to meet the goals he had set for himself.
“I can’t say anything, but I have a clear future. I’ve signed for two years and I’m going to the team I want. I’m very lucky; I’ll go to a good bike with a very good salary,” the Granollers rider told Motorsport.com on last August 4, in the preview of the British Grand Prix .
On Sunday, on the same stage, KTM sporting director Pit Beirer confirmed on the championship’s television signal that one of the team’s riders will be announced at the Austrian Grand Prix next week. Tech3, so you don’t have to be very smart to understand that the youngest of the Espargarós will be officially confirmed as the new driver of the French team, something that has been discussed for many weeks.
The key, now, is to understand who will be the rider that will accompany Pol in the Tech3 formation, even though the official team is closed with Brad Binder and the recently signed Jack Miller.
KTM has a single seat and a good number of pilots under control that it can manage as it pleases thanks to the leonine contracts to which it subjects them. Right now everything points to the fact that the rider who will close the RC16 quartet on the 2023 grid is the Australian Remy Gardner, but in Mattighofen they are still determined not to let the Spanish Raúl Fernández go free, who in his debut year in the premier class it is not managing to adapt to the front three of the orange bike.
In recent weeks, in addition, Remy and Raúl have been joined by a third passenger who aspires to that fourth KTM, the also Spanish Augusto Fernández , leader of the Moto2 World Championship after achieving, on Sunday at Silverstone, his third consecutive victory, which It has catapulted him to the head of the championship.
“The decision on the second [Tech3] rider is definitely open,” Beirer told MotoGP.com . “We are looking for and talking about our new generation of drivers, so we have to wait a little longer. But for the Spielberg race (Austrian GP) we should finalize at least part of the garage,” he added, referring to Pol.
“As far as the young riders are concerned, we want to wait a bit longer,” said the former motocross rider.
With Pedro Acosta on the horizon, he has a contract with KTM until the end of 2024 in which it is stipulated that that year he will be in the premier class, Gardner under contract and Augusto Fernández asking for a step, logic indicates that finally the Austrian manufacturer will have to give in and set Raúl free to join Miguel Oliveira in the Aprilia satellite team project for 2023.
