The latest market rumours point to the possibility that Fermin Aldeguer has been approached by Honda to move up to MotoGP in 2024, and Aleix Espargaro, who has a friendly relationship with the spanish prodigy, assured that the latter has the pace for the top category, but still revealed some hesitation about whether the japanese manufacturer is the “right” bet, especially in it’s current moment.
Speaking to the press ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Espargaro was asked if the young Moto2 rider was ready to make the jump, but he said that in this particular case other factors had to be taken into account, given the team that would be looking at him: ‘He is ready. Fermin as a rider is very fast, I love him, he’s a very nice guy and in the last few races he’s shown that he’s very fast. He reminds me a bit of Fabio [Quartararo]’s style with the bike, but they’re asking me this because it looks like he might be going to Honda, so it’s a different question: is he ready to go to MotoGP with my bike, or Pecco’s [Bagnaia], or Honda? That’s different. He’s 18, so mentally he’s not ready. Technically he’s a fast rider and he can be fast on a MotoGP bike with ease, but to struggle on a bike when he’s not competitive?! I don’t know if he’s ready mentally’.
Asked if the GT Trevisan SpeedUp rider had asked him for his opinion on such a move, the Aprilia Racing rider replied: ‘It’s very difficult. He didn’t ask my opinion directly and I’m very glad he didn’t because it’s a very difficult answer’.
As for what he would have said if it had been a direct question, Aleix concluded… with a question about Honda itself: ‘I would have said: «Yes, take the [MotoGP] train, it’s a factory team but in 2024 a lot of us finish our contracts and he could be world champion by then [in Moto2] and he could jump into the category then, but who’s to say that in one or two years Honda won’t be winning again? It’s very, very difficult for him’.