Espargaro’s comments came after HRC team boss Alberto Puig told Motorsport.com that Honda will not alter its philosophy of developing the bike simply because of the serious arm injury Marquez suffered in 2020.
Puig thus responded to criticism that Honda has received over the years for having placed too much emphasis on developing a bike just for Marquez at the expense of a more user-friendly package for its other riders.
This has been reflected in the results of late, as Márquez is currently the best Honda rider in the standings in ninth place and has already equaled the two HRC podiums in 2020 despite missing the first two rounds this season.
The Catalan has also encountered difficulties in 2021, being the rider on the entire grid who has had the most crashes, with 20, largely due to the physical limitations that he drags, but also to the lack of rear grip of the Honda.
Despite this, Espargaró, who has had trouble adapting to the RC213V, believes that Honda should follow Márquez’s guidelines when it comes to developing the bike.
(Before reading on, click on the link or on the image to see all the photos of Pol Espargaró’s 2021 season in MotoGP)
“Well, in the end Marc is the fastest, so the factory has to follow what Marc says,” Espargaro replied when asked by Motorsport.com if he thought Puig’s comments were correct.
“This is easy and the most obvious thing for the factory to do: follow the fastest. The factory cannot follow [the words] of the slowest, because that would be a big problem. The natural thing is to follow what Marc says, he’s the fastest, and I think he’s smart.
Espargaró praises Honda for the work they are doing to improve the bike, noting that COVID-19 restrictions on engine development have limited HRC this year.
“On the philosophy of the factory, I don’t know. Actually, Honda is working for the future, on next year’s bike. I know they are working and with this COVID ban they have a lot of things to prove, and speaking of engines and COVID restrictions, we couldn’t use [a new engine] this year. So we’ll see.” riveted
