What Espargaro learned about Marquez from his time at Honda

Pol Espargaro was surprised to see how Marc Marquez was able to tame an increasingly difficult Honda MotoGP bike during their time as team-mates in 2021-22.

Having played a major role in building KTM’s MotoGP operation from scratch, Espargaro got the opportunity to race for the factory HRC team in 2021 alongside six-time champion Marquez.

At that time, Marquez was still not fully fit after breaking his arm in a crash at Jerez in 2020. Moreover, the RC213V was quickly sliding out of competitiveness, having been leapfrogged by more aero and electronics-reliant machinery from European manufacturers.

That meant Espargaro could only muster two podiums in as many seasons as Honda, finishing 12th in the championship in 2021 before dropping to 16th place the following year.

Although Marquez was also unable to replicate his peak form from the 2010s, he was able to fare 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 Marquez reminded him of the 2019 season with KTM, when he was able to extract the maximum out of the RC16 while new team-mate Johann Zarco struggled so much that he was ousted from the team after just 13 races.

“Somehow I discovered that he was doing things that I was doing at KTM, when people like Johann Zarco were coming to the team,” he explained on MotoGP’s official podcast.

Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team, Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Dorna

“He was saying comments that I couldn’t understand, like the bike is not good in that area and it is 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 I was Johann in that moment. I was saying the bike is really bad in that area and actually [it] was a strong point of Marc.

“And I discovered that a rider [like Marquez] is able to adapt to the problems of the bike and make the problems an advantage.

“The problem [for me] was that when another guy, an outsider, goes on that bike, that problems are so big. But for the rider that is there [already], they are big gains. It’s very weird.”

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

While there was an obvious lure to joining Honda, the most successful marque in MotoGP history, the Spaniard said he was also motivated by the desire to assess his speed against Marquez in the same garage.

“You know I had been fighting against Marquez [previously],” he said. “It happened during all my career, in 125cc, in Moto2.

“To go to Honda it was not just [about going] to Honda, it was also going as Marc’s team-mate, to see what the hell he is doing to be so fast and so quick. To prove myself.

“Okay, I know I can develop a bike, I did it, we did it. But it’s now time for me, for my ego, ‘let’s see what I can do on a bike that one guy is winning [on]’.

“And actually Honda, it’s a historical machine that has been on the podium many, many times, with victories and amazing riders. To wear that colour is an honour.

“But it was important for me to stay on the sight of Marc Marquez to understand what the hell he was doing.”