Espargaro “convinced” he can replicate KTM success at Honda

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As first revealed by Motorsport.com earlier this year, Espargaro will join Marc Marquez at the factory Honda squad next season, with Alex Marquez being moved to LCR on a two-year deal with HRC.

Though Honda has won six of the last seven riders’ titles with Marc Marquez, it has endured a miserable 2020 campaign which is yet to yield a podium result – with the best-placed Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami on the year-old RC213V in seventh in the championship.

The absence of Marquez through an arm injury since the Spanish Grand Prix has called into question Honda’s current bike philosophy, though both HRC team boss Alberto Puig and LCR’s Cal Crutchlow don’t think a rethink is needed.

Meanwhile, KTM has won twice in 2020, while Espargaro has scored two podiums – the most recent of which coming at the Emilia Romagna GP.

He has repeatedly been asked if he is now regretting his decision to join Honda in 2021, but is “convinced” he can do what he had done on the KTM on the RC213V.

“When you take a decision normally you take the decision for better, and normally when you make a decision you make it knowing all the facts,” Espargaro said.

“So, you put the facts on the table at the moment you need to make the decision, and then you choose the best decision.

“So now I think that I can be faster with a Honda, but in the case I would not think that, I would say that when you make a decision you never make a decision to go worse.

“In the moment you take the decision, you have all the things on the table and you choose what you think is better.

“So, now to go backwards to the time I made the decision and say ‘oh, now I should do that’ or ‘now I think it’s a bad decision’, this is just losing time because every time you make a decision you make it for the better.

“If you make a decision to be bad, to go in a worse situation and you know you’re going to be in a worse situation, or to take a lot of money, you are stupid.

“So, at the moment I’m really convinced I can do the same results with the Honda [that I’m doing with KTM].

“If not, I will take my time, but I will fight for it like I have been doing with KTM for the last four years.

“I started last in Qatar four years ago, and now we are on the podium. So, if I can make it, I will do it with the Honda fighting again.”

Espargaro currently sits 12th in the standings on 57 points after crashing from the Catalan GP, 30 clear of the highest-placed 2020 Honda of Alex Marquez in 16th.