– KTM test rider Pol Espargaro has been mainly busy in recent months riding the new 850cc prototype for the 2027 MotoGP season. Now he has to temporarily race again as a replacement rider for Maverick Vinales.
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After his appearances in Silverstone and Aragon, Espargaro will also race next weekend in Misano. The switch to the current 1,000cc KTM with Michelin tires was not so easy at first.
Because the Spaniard was last on the still current motorcycle at the end of January during the shakedown test in Sepang before his race appearances. Tests and race weekends are two completely different things.
Espargaro felt this especially during the qualifying laps in Silverstone and Aragon: “When you put on new tires, the speeds you achieve in the corners change completely.”
“Because the acceleration out of the previous corner is massively better. So you have to recognize the speed and the distance and then adjust it anew every lap.”
“If you are faster, you just have to realize that you are a bit faster and then brake a little earlier. And that is exactly what I am still missing. That is what gives me the most trouble.”
The regular riders are used to using the extra grip in qualifying laps and pushing the motorcycle to the absolute limit. In Friday practice in Aragon, for example, Espargaro tried to follow Pedro Acosta.
But even in the warm-up lap he could not keep up with the young Spaniard. Already in the out-lap from the pits, Acosta was three seconds faster and Espargaro lost contact to be able to do the flying lap behind him.
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The extra grip of the tires in the qualifying attempt is one thing, the tire degradation over the race distance another. This also caused Espargaro great difficulties recently at the Aragon race.
“It was only my second race. All the electronics, when the tire degrades, then I suffer a lot. I feel like I don’t know how to behave and how to adapt to these big changes.”
Remarkable in Aragon was Espargaro’s fourth place in the warm-up, which only lasts ten minutes. “But then comes the race, and there are turbulences everywhere. The tire degrades, the tank is full.”
“The situation changes a lot, and you have to adapt. You have to know what the motorcycle will do and what will happen. And I am discovering this right now like a rookie for the first time,” says Espargaro. “It’s tricky.”
In Silverstone, Espargaro collected three world championship points as 13th. In Aragon, he finished 16th. Now Misano is on the program, where he last raced with a wildcard in 2024 and finished tenth.
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Despite his difficulties being a racer again, Espargaro is optimistic: “I feel like I am getting faster and faster. Let’s see what happens in Misano. I am used to testing in Misano, and I am fast there. We will see.”
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