How Espargaro is making his case to return to full-time racing

For the second time in three MotoGP events, Pol Espargaro is a racer once again. Two races ago he stood in for injured Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales at the Czech GP; this weekend he is in action at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Replacing an injured team-mate “is not what I like the most, nor does it make me feel comfortable,” admits Espargaro in Hungary, where he progressed directly to Q2 and then narrowly missed out on a point with 10th position in the Saturday sprint. “You never want another rider to get injured.”

But he knows better than most that MotoGP is a sport of swings and roundabouts. Espargaro himself had to step aside from his racing career as a result of the extremely serious injury he suffered in the 2023 season opener at Portimao, where he crashed into a wall and was physically destroyed, missing the first nine grands prix of the season and carrying after-effects until the end of the season.

Following Pedro Acosta’s emergence from Moto2, KTM asked the recovering Espargaro, who had a contract until 2024, to give up his Tech3 seat to the teenage sensation last year. It was a request that the Spaniard didn’t appreciate, but nonetheless became part of the testing and development team.

There was a commitment to letting him compete in races as a wildcard, a promise that the Mattighofen-based team has, in part, failed to keep. He competed in just three races in 2024: Italy, Austria and San Marino.

This renegade approach, coupled with the absence of an offer to continue as part of the KTM test team next season, led Espargaro to emphasise that he is still on the rider market.

At just 34 years old, in peak physical condition and hungry for competition, the Catalan has put himself in the hands of Albert Valera – the man who manages Jorge Martin. He has already received several offers from the WorldSBK paddock, where factories such as BMW, Ducati, Honda and Yamaha have not yet finalised their lineups for next season.

His performance so far at the Hungarian Grand Prix has been an ideal way to attract the interest of a championship seeking quality riders after the loss of its current leader, Toprak Razgatlioglu.

“I want to keep racing,” Espargaro insists. “The truth is that I really enjoyed having members of the test team in the pits. When I stepped back from competition [at the end of 2023], they were the ones who welcomed me. With them I rebuilt myself, not only physically, but also in my riding style.

“They understood that my condition wasn’t the best and had the patience to support me in my riding, with a set-up that helped me, even if it wasn’t the best. This result in Hungary is part of a very hard-fought process.”

Espargaro believes he is in better shape, both physically and mentally, than when he stopped full-time racing at just 32 years of age. The Granollers native believes it’s not too late to make a full-time return, and welcomes the possibility of this one day happening.

“Sometimes people ask me if I regret retiring. No, I don’t regret it because I never retired! In reality, I’m still racing and I want to keep racing,” he says, despite having become one of the stars of the MotoGP broadcasts on Spanish television.

“I didn’t retire; I had to due to a life situation. I crashed, hurt myself badly, had to recover and wasn’t fit to be a MotoGP rider. But I didn’t retire – I wanted to keep racing and I want to keep competing.

“[Competing] is what I do when I get on the bike and the results come out. The idea that I’ve retired isn’t real. I’m still racing.”

If Saturday’s sprint is anything to go by, simply staying out of trouble in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday will be enough to earn points. Coupled with those he picked up for ninth place when he replaced Vinales at Brno, that can only boost his stock as he looks for a return to full-time racing.