At the age of 30, the rider from Granollers is entering his 17th season in the World Championship, his ninth in the premier class, in which he has not yet achieved any victory, and the second in the official Honda team, with which he achieved his best result in MotoGP , second place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix .
For Pol Espargaró the first season in the Repsol Honda team was not easy at all, the change of team, the problems of the RC213V and the lack of a clear reference for the brand during much of the course, slowed down his adaptation, and when it seemed that He had taken a leap forward, in the final part of the course, falls and injuries prevented him from endorsing it.
But both Honda and the rider himself know that in the final stretch of 2021 things changed for Pol, that he was competitive with last year’s unruly bike and that his performance was there, despite the fact that he could only scratch second place in the Emilia Romagna , in the penultimate stop of the calendar.
Pol’s objective is to start the 2022 season with that level of competitiveness and, building on the clear improvement of this year’s RC213V, build a season in which he can be constantly fighting for podiums.
An objective that has not caught on among the opinion-makers, who do not place the Catalan in any of the pools to be the protagonist in the 2022 MotoGP season. Quite the contrary, everyone seems to be striving to find a replacement for him within the Repsol team for the course next.
The Spaniard has always defended that the lack of experience with the bike and a preseason in 2021 affected his adaptation, a handicap that he hopes to have overcome this year, even more so after leading the preseason tests in Indonesia.
“After the good practices we had, of course I’m motivated and eager to start a new season,” explains Pol prior to the start of the course. “I’ve been training hard over the winter to be as physically prepared as possible,” he adds.
With a year of experience in the Honda team and with a completely new bike, Espargaró faces the season that starts this weekend in Qatar knowing that every race counts, but with optimism.
“We arrive in a very different situation to a year ago, I know Honda, I know my team and although this RC213V is new, I am understanding it more and more.”
The Catalan is aware that having been the fastest driver in the preseason does not guarantee him anything.
“We have had a good preseason, but when you go to race everything is different,” he warns.
The #44 does not want to fall into the trap of anxiety that blocked him in the first races of last year, when the results did not come.
“This weekend in Qatar is about building a good base and improving it every week,” he says, but without giving up his goal this year, which is to constantly be fighting for the top positions.
“I want to be fighting for the top positions every weekend, but it’s early. Let’s see what happens, who stands out, how the weather changes and the conditions change,” says a Pol who this year wants to become the great underdog in MotoGP.
Photo by: Repsol Media
Photo by: Repsol Media
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