Pol Espargaró: “If you’re not at the top with a team like Repsol Honda, you’re letting yourself down”

MADRID, 13 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Spanish MotoGP rider Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda) has no doubts that he is currently in the best team in the Motorcycle World Championship, something that entails extra pressure “if you are not at the top”, and he is also “happy and calm” despite who has not yet renewed his contract that ends in 2022.

“It’s the best team, not only because of the history they have, which is obviously the best MotoGP history in history, but also because if you wear these colors and don’t win, if you’re not at the top, if you’re not in the stop, you let yourself down. It’s like saying: ‘How can I be on this bike and not be leading races?'”, Espargaró is sincere in his interview in the space ‘La Caja’ that is broadcast this Wednesday in ‘ DAZN’.

The one from Granollers signed for the golden wing brand to run in 2021 and his contract ends after this season, but he is not nervous about renewing it because he has reached a point in his sports career where he can be “proud” of what Has got. “I’m happy and calm. That doesn’t mean I’m not nervous to renew, but I’m at another point, I try to go like ‘Cholo’ (Simeone), game by game and see what comes,” he says.

In the team, he shares a ‘box’ with Marc Márquez, with whom he had a tense duel in 2012 for the Moto2 title, although the youngest of the Espargaró believes that “a more media problem was generated” that caused everything to come to them both “in a pretty harsh way”. “At that time I was 19 or 20 years old, you are still a child, and when you are competing at that height, at those levels, that so many people see you and you have so many ‘inputs’, and on top of that the press creates that controversy, things you take them very badly and you say things out of place”, recognizes.

“Now with time I see it and I don’t like things that I saw about myself, that now make you grow and learn, that’s why you mature, but they were moments that I didn’t enjoy and I didn’t like them because of that, because I think it wasn’t fair. for both of us”, adds the Spanish rider.

The Catalan also praises the figure of the ‘Team Manager’, Alberto Puig, “a person that every team must have, who, if he is with you, is with you to the fullest, and is not going to let anyone or anything hurt you”. “And he, if he can put himself in the middle between you and a bullet, he is going to put himself and he is going to prevent that bullet from damaging you so that he can take on that responsibility,” he underlines.

“IN THE WORLD CUP YOU HAVE TO PROVE YOU’RE WORTH AND YOU RISK YOUR LIFE”

In the World Championship he also competes against his brother Aleix, who rides for Aprilia, and with whom he gets along “very well”, but without forgetting that “the rivalry on the track is enormous”. “And also, we are now at a level where we compete against each other. Aleix and Aprilia are in great shape, so that creates a competitiveness and anxiety between us that is difficult to manage as much as we love each other. Then we get home and forget everything, but it’s not easy,” he confesses.

And it is that Pol Espargaró believes that in the championship “there is a lot of pressure for two things”. “The first is that you have to get a good result, you have to be fast, you have to show that you’re worth it, but then also, that other sports don’t have that, it’s that you risk your life,” he warns.

All in all, he sees himself in the “best moment” of his career, although with age (30 years) he begins to pay for being in a “very physically demanding” sport and the injuries he has already accumulated. “We see athletes, such as in football, who are extending sports careers or Valentino (Rossi), who at 40 years old was still competitive,” he details, making it clear that the Italian is “unique” and that he would also like to “extend five more at a great level” his sports career.

“Unfortunately, happiness is given to us by our work, also in many other sectors, and when I don’t have a good career, it’s as if it doesn’t allow me to enjoy my life, my private life, my social life, my friends. I am very demanding with myself and when I fail, many times I am not able to enjoy everything that life gives me. That competitiveness and that agony of not doing well goes inside and that is very complicated to manage, ” adds the one from Granollers.

On the other hand, Pol Espargaró also talks in this interview on the streaming platform about other off-piste hobbies such as cross-stitch because it relaxed him “quite a lot” or playing the piano, something he has exposed in some videos . “I play a lot more than I show in the videos, but I’m a little embarrassed, I’m not able to play in front of someone. That’s another thing I’ve lost over the years, I’m not confident enough to play in front of someone. someone, it costs me a lot”, sentence.