What Espargaro learned about Marquez from his time at Honda

pol espargaro It was surprising to see how mark marquez His teammates were able to tame an increasingly difficult Honda MotoGP bike during the 2021-22 season.

After playing a major role in building KTM’s MotoGP operation, Espargaro was given the opportunity to race for the factory HRC team in 2021 alongside six-time champion Márquez.

At the time, Marquez was still not fully fit after breaking his arm in a crash at Jerez in 2020. Furthermore, the RC213V was rapidly losing competitiveness, having been leapfrogged by more aero and electronics-dependent machinery from European manufacturers.

This meant Espargaro could only muster two podiums for Honda all season, finishing 12th in the championship in 2021 and falling to 16th the following year.

Although Marquez was also unable to replicate his peak form of the 2010s, he was able to perform far better on the same bike, winning three races in 2021 and outperforming all his Honda compatriots in ’22 despite missing several races .

Espargaro said the contrasting fortunes between him and Márquez reminded him of his 2019 season with KTM, when he was able to get the most out of the RC16 as a new team-mate. johan zarko He struggled so much that he was dropped from the team after just 13 races.

“Somehow I discovered he was doing the same thing I was doing at KTM, when guys like Johann Zarco were coming to the team,” he told MotoGP’s official podcast.

“He was making comments that I couldn’t understand, like the bike is no good in that area and it’s really bad. And I was saying that that area is a strong point of the bike, so I can perform really well in that area.

“But then I was going to Honda and at that moment I was Johan. I was saying the bike is really bad in that area and actually (it) was a strong point of Mark’s.

“And I learned that a rider (like Marquez) is able to adapt to the problems of the bike and turn the problems into something profitable.

“The problem (for me) was that when another person, an outsider, gets on that bike, the problems become much bigger. But for the rider who is (already) there, these are big benefits. This is very strange.”

By 2020, Espargaro was a regular podium contender at KTM and finished the season with a career-best fifth place in the standings.

While there was the obvious attraction of joining Honda, the most successful marque in MotoGP history, the Spaniard said he was also motivated by a desire to assess his pace against Márquez in the same garage.

“You know I was fighting against Marquez (before),” he said. “It happened throughout my career, in 125cc, in Moto2.

“Going to Honda wasn’t just about going to Honda, it was also about going as Mark’s team-mate, to see what he’s been through to go so far and so quickly. To prove myself.

“Okay, I know I can develop a bike, I did it, we did it. But now for me, the time has come for my ego to say, ‘Let’s see what I can do on a bike that a guy is winning on.’

“And really the Honda, it’s a historic machine that has been on the podium many times with wins and amazing riders. It’s an honor to wear those colors.

“But it was important for me to be in Marc Marquez’s eyes to understand what he was doing.”