It was not a Dutch GP to remember for the Honda HRC team. While Joan Mir ended his race on the seventh lap, in a crash with Fermin Aldeguer, Aleix Espargaró stopped just short of the points zone, concluding in Somkiat Chantra's slipstream this his first Grand Prix as a replacement for the injured Luca Marini. A rather complicated Sunday for the Honda test rider, who found himself struggling throughout the race with the vibrations of his RC213V.
Before recounting his nightmarish Grand Prix, the Spanish rider, a great friend of Jorge Martin and for years captain of Aprilia, could not help but express an opinion on the dispute between the two parties. Back powerfully in the spotlight this weekend in Assen.
"I see it as being hard and very sad on both sides," Aleix acknowledged, "I can understand both of them, however, if there is a clause that allows him to leave and he (Martin, ed.) doesn't want to stay I can't understand the position of his counterpart, who wants to keep a rider who doesn't want to be there. I think it's not easy for both sides to handle this situation. Jorge has a brilliant manager and it will be difficult to understand what will happen."
Turning his gaze to his race, the eldest of the Espargaró brothers instead could only admit that finishing behind Chantra was the only positive aspect.
"I had a nightmarish race, with a lot of vibrations. I let Somkiat pass me on the last lap, then I went wide in Turn 12 and saw that he was 15th. I'm glad he got a point, because he's not having a good time in MotoGP," he noted, "It's a very tough category and he's not riding a bike that's easy to start his career with. I just hope he can improve, because the season is always very difficult for young riders coming from Moto2."
Does Aleix consider him a good enough rider for MotoGP?
"Yes," he answered without hesitation, " I think he proved it in Moto2, winning races and fighting for podiums. Only a year ago, everyone was pushing to bring Sergio Garcia to MotoGP, and now he is not even in the World Championship anymore. It's hard to judge when a rider is good enough or not good enough. There are riders who are now getting good results in MotoGP who needed a long time to get to the top. Before I got to MotoGP, there were some times during my career when I was really slow and not good enough, but then I won races and fought for the title. It's really hard to judge, but I think Somkiat is in a really difficult position, being in an unofficial team, with a Honda. He's still young and doesn't have as much experience, so it's not easy for him."
The Honda test rider and rider then went into more specifics about the problems that affected his race.
"The soft on the rear was the wrong choice, but when we talked to the Michelin people the drop in the tire was not dramatic so we decided to go with that. My problem, however, was the vibrations, and I think mounting the soft on the rear didn't help, because the chattering of the bike increased with the high temperatures reached by the rear tire. I have to say that the grip didn't drop much in the last part of the race, but the vibrations in the front were crazy. I couldn't ride and after eight or 10 laps I was desperate so I decided to close the throttle. After making a lot of mistakes and going wide a dozen times, I only thought about finishing the race," he recounted.
"The vibrations can be felt in front, but they definitely come from the rear - clarified the Honda rider - The strange thing is that we can't understand why and when they start. It's really frustrating, because I could have done more. Joan and Johann manage to ride with these vibrations, hats off to them, but Honda needs to improve in this aspect, because the riders need to be focused on being fast at the apex and not on avoiding crashing because of the vibrations. Get used to the chattering? If I raced the whole season that would be the most important thing, because it's my job and I'm paid to get the most out of the bike. But that's still not the way, because as much as I've said many times that it's the rider's job to adapt to the bike, it's our fault - it's up to the test team and engineers to improve the situation, not the riders."
Does Honda already have in mind how to solve the problem?
"We have a couple of ideas and we have already tried a couple of things in Barcelona, playing around with the weight distribution and trying a swingarm, but in reality we are still a little lost," Espargaró commented, "It sounds strange, but even though we have great engineers and a great company, we can't find the problem."