Aleix Espargaró is becoming, on his own merits, one of the benchmarks in MotoGP. He has already had two podiums this season with the Aprilia, the victory in Argentina and the third in Portugal, which together with the third last year at Silverstone means that his factory is only one point away, one third place, from losing the concessions that regulations allow. On that point and on the performance of his teammate Maverick Viñales, clearly inferior to him at the moment and who has won all the races of the year, he has asked ACE at the Ángel Nieto de Jerez and it is a pleasure to listen to his explanations.
His point of view about Maverick, who has his best result of the course in the seventh in Argentina, and comes from making two consecutive tenths, is the following: “It’s a bit difficult. The truth is that I don’t think he lacks speed but a bit of consistency, understanding the bike well. He needs to be a bit quicker on new tyres, but then there are parts of the race where he’s as quick as me or even faster, like in America. You have to find consistency. We talk a lot and we have a very good relationship, but in the end it’s what he said the other day, that we have different driving styles. As much as we look and compare ourselves, each one has to find the thread of it. Understanding the bike perfectly makes the difference.”
On the possibility of losing concessions sooner rather than later, the Catalan says this: “I want to lose the concessions. I had a meeting with the team, because the test team is going to do a very fair test, before Le Mans, and I told them that I would like to go for a three-hour ride and they were stunned. They have told me that if I make the podium in Jerez I can no longer go to the test, and I have told them that everything is for that. The truth is that I don’t mind losing concessions. The engineers are more concerned than me.”
He looks very calm about the possibility of losing the privilege of having unlimited training sessions and more engines available, and not sealed, than the competition: “I’m not worried about anything that could be lost. Nothing. Zero. If you analyze it well, we have the extra days, which can be squeezed out of me training as if I were a clockwork orange and we have two or three more engines, but last year that would hardly have been necessary. This year the engines last longer and when we pass 1,000 kilometers they are still competitive, which was not the case last year. I trust Noale and Aprilia, that’s why I’m not worried.”
And regarding his title options, because he is third overall, just three points behind the head shared by Quartararo and Rins, he assures: “I believe in my World Cup options. When life presents you with an opportunity, you have to try it. Why not dream about this? It’s still too early though.”