A few weeks ago, Pol Espargaró returned to MotoGP for his first wildcard since retiring full-time at the end of last season. The Italian GP, held at the demanding Mugello circuit, was the chosen round. Espargaró accepted without considering certain aspects that he will take into account in the future.
In the podcast Por Orejas from Motorsport.com, the Red Bull KTM Spaniard did not hide that the challenge was significant: ‘It was very tough and very stressful because it wasn’t a circuit that I chose or had a preference to compete in. Moreover, I think the situation I was in was not ideal for riding in Mugello due to the lack of speed I had. I hadn’t been on the bike since the test on the Monday after the Jerez GP. So, I was lacking a lot of speed, but I did what I could, and the important thing was to gather information for the team, and everything went well’.
Considering all the conditions, Espargaró did not have ambitious goals, with the main aim being to finish and gather information, as he explained: ‘I didn’t compete in Mugello last year because I was injured, so the expectations were very low. The bar we set within the team, within the factory, was very low because there were some parameters we didn’t control well. For instance, the bike; the bike was very, very different […], there were many new components and I had only ridden it in Jerez after the race. And we didn’t know how all these new things were going to work in Mugello. So, since everything was very much up in the air, I lacked track time, speed, and the expectations were so low that in the end, the result was fine. Whatever came was important as long as we managed to finish the race and gather information, which was essential’.
And what was Espargaró’s response to the invitation for Mugello? ‘We assumed that I was eager to compete! I’ve been out of racing for a very short time and it really didn’t matter to me where to compete. So, I was waiting like a little kid coming out of school waiting for candy – waiting for them to tell me when and where to compete, and I accepted, it didn’t matter to me. Obviously, seeing how everything went and what you’re subjected to riding on a circuit like Mugello, next year I will try to plan things differently, and I also made the test team aware, to prepare a bit more for these types of events. But still, when they proposed it to me, it’s clear that I didn’t think about all the conditions: I didn’t think that I hadn’t ridden in Mugello last year, I didn’t think that I would be back on the bike after a month off, with a completely different bike from what I’m used to’, he said.