Pol Espargaro: Best to use the same as the guy winning

Pol Espargaro has explained in further detail why he believes switching to the same bike spec and settings as Repsol Honda team-mate Marc Marquez will be beneficial.

Usually, MotoGP riders pursue their own set-up, since moulding the bike to compliment their riding style usually makes them faster.

But Espargaro is new to the Repsol Honda team and still trying to find his feet with the RC213V after minimal pre-season testing.

After watching Marquez take Honda's first MotoGP victory since 2019 at Sachsenring, Espargaro - who finished in an 'eye-opening' eleventh place - said he wanted technical parity with the #93 to help eliminate unknown factors from his own performances.

While areas such as the engine (frozen since 2020) and aerodynamics are the same, Espargaro revealed that he is now using a different chassis to Marquez, who today confirmed he is running an older design.

Marquez decided to go 'back to what I know' after feeling 'something strange' with the parts developed while he was sidelined during the 2020 season. 

Espargaro meanwhile made his RCV debut in testing at Qatar in March 2021, and appears to have remained on the latest Honda parts. However he can't ignore Marquez's breakthrough victory.

"I don't know [if Marc's settings will help me]. That's why I want to check," Espargaro said on Thursday at Assen. "My way of thinking is that the best way of being fast is to be exactly the same as the guy who is winning.

"We are humans and we can adapt faster and better than a machine can do. So I'm not saying that by putting Marc's settings or following his line [set-up], I'm going to be as fast as him. This is just bullshit. It's not as simple as that. [I wish] it was!

"But to use the same package as another rider that is winning shows you exactly where you are weak compared to them. Then you understand exactly what you need to improve and what this bike needs to be fast. In the end, it's what I need.

"Now I'm just testing things to get answers because sometimes I have questions I don’t know how to solve… It's easier to try to adapt myself to the riding style of Marc, than trying to set up a Honda just for me when I have only just arrived here."

But the technical cloning to enable a direct comparison of strong and weak points relative to Marquez may not be possible in time for Assen this weekend.

"It’s something that we have in mind, maybe not here, maybe next race," Espargaro said. "I mean it's just having an eye on the guy that is fastest on the Honda and this is just for my learning process. I don’t know if it's going to come here or the next one but I mean it's not something anyway huge.

"It's not that Marc is using a completely different engine and everything different. It's just about set-up, some stuff on the bike. It's not because he won and I was tenth and I said his bike better than mine. It's just to be able to understand a little bit more what the Honda needs and how this bike works.

"We only had just five days of pre-season testing and still we haven't done that many races, it's only the middle of the year… Every single day I jump on a different track with different tyres, I keep understanding the bike and learning a lot.

"But even like that, okay the results are not coming in the races, but we have some sparks during the sessions. For example, in warm-up I did the second best lap time. We are fast. We have the speed. The only problem is we need to put everything more together."

While he would like a clearer comparison in future, the #44 was still able to learn something from Marquez's performance in Germany.

"Marc is gaining time, especially when he wants to make the lap time, on brakes. Also he did a very good start which allowed him to be second in the first corner and this also helped for the temperature of the front tyre," Espargaro said.

"I did a super bad start and then when the rain came, I couldn’t take profit because I had Rins in front, he was quite slow because of his injury and I was not good enough to overtake some guys.

"From the bad moments and the bad races you learn a lot and everything is knowledge."

Espargaro is currently twelfth in the world championship, with a best race finish of eighth place.

A 'very upset' Maverick Vinales revealed on Thursday that he will 'copy' his Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo's bike and settings this weekend, in a bid to break the baffling run of difficulties that culminated in the Qatar winner finishing last at Sachsenring.