Alberto Puig has backed Pol Espargaro to challenge for MotoGP wins in 2022, while rumors surrounding the Spanish rider’s future are of ‘zero importance’.
Espargaro, who goes into his second season with the factory Repsol Honda team, could see his seat under threat for 2023 as the Japanese manufacturer is heavily rumored to be interested in Suzuki rider Joan Mir.
However, Puig has claimed Honda are ‘super focused’ with Espargaro and that they expect to get the best out of him following a strong end to 2021.
While it is believed that Mir is the team’s #1 choice to partner Marc Marquez, if Espargaro can achieve podiums or even wins during the opening few rounds of 2022, then staying with Honda would be a very real possibility.
Asked about the rumors surrounding Espargaro’s futures, the Repsol Honda Team Manager said: “We never listen to these comments. We are super focused with Pol and he is our rider for this year and we are going to support him 100% to help him achieve the best results possible. All these rumours, it has zero importance.”
“We expect that he races to win, for the top positions. This is why we contracted him. He’s fast, he has experience, he’s not a small kid.
“So his job is to race to be in the top positions. Last year it’s true that he was expecting one type of situation and he found another one and it took him quite a long time to understand this bike.
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“During the year we have been changing, he made a big step in Misano for understanding the bike. We also realized many things in that test, so from then on, he improved.
“He had a good winter even though he had a big crash in Valencia, he’s motivated, and we expect that he is going to be fighting for good positions. Normally, Honda always try to find riders that can be fighting for top positions and that’s why we contracted him and what we expect.”
Puig wasn’t alone in backing Espargaro as Repsol Honda Technical Manager, Takeo Yokoyama, called the 30 year-old’s determination his ‘strongest point’ after having worked with the former KTM rider for an entire season.
Yokoyama added: “We have been working with Pol Espargaro for one year already. What I have seen last year is that his strongest point is his determination and his approach to everything: to each practice, to each run and even each lap he is always determined to go ‘OK, let’s try to improve at every single moment’.
“He’s never a guy who is destroyed, I mean he is always trying to show his maximum at each moment. That’s his strongest point in my opinion.”