Pol Espargaró returns to action this weekend in MotoGP with a wildcard entry at the Italian GP. After retiring from full-time racing, he became a test rider for Red Bull KTM and is participating in this round in that capacity.
The Spaniard acknowledged that Mugello is not the easiest circuit to return to but said it was necessary: ‘It feels weird to be here and not in the other side now. It’s been like more than six months without racing and really I was waiting for that moment. Okay, maybe Mugello is one of the hardest on the calendar to comeback, but as the team is testing different things we needed it. This track is a special one and we need to try some things on the bike, which is okay. I’m ready, I’m happy to help the team always. Let’s see if we can give something extra to our guys in a place where normally it’s full of Italian tifosi pushing for the Italian manufacturers. Let’s see if we can help them to be a little bit better on the top’.
Regarding what he will be testing on the bike, Espargaró said: ‘I don’t think you are going to find something very different from what Dani [Pedrosa] tested in Jerez. We are testing different things, approaching the things in a different way, in different tracks, to understand if they’re good or not – not just in aerodynamics, in all aspects of the bike. Unluckly we are facing a very tough year on the racing side. All the manufacturers are super competitive and we are trying to perform the same or even faster than them, which allows us to work in many different places for what we need to improve. This one is a place you need to try for example aerodynamics, you need to try electronics, because of the long corners. Chassis, engine in the long and fast straight. So there are many places where you can try the bike and we are set to do it’.
On his approach, the KTM rider said: ‘It’s going to be wet, I think it’s going to be very tough. We need to take everything so easy. I didn’t ride here last year because I was injured. I didn’t jump on the bike since the Jerez test and we come while the other guys have been racing a couple of days ago and in this place where it’s not easy at all. If you put everything together, if I want to go for it from the first day on Friday, it can end up quickly and badly. So, I just take everything easy, I just control the bike and try to work on the bike because the guys are going to take our bikes on Monday for testing also to understand what we were trying. It’s important to make this race weekend as a test for the factory guys to be ready on Monday with our bikes’.
As for his mission in this wildcard entry, Espargaró clarified: ‘For sure testing the bike in this place where is so important and then also try to be productive for them for the Monday test that they don’t lose time because it’s just a one day test and it’s in the middle of the year. So they are going to be pretty busy’.