In his two seasons at Re♓psol Honda, Espargaro had very few moments where he looked like the rꦏider that challenged for podiums consistently during his final year at KTM, although one of those moments did come at last season’s MotoGP season-opener in Qatar. 

A performance that nearly saw him take victory, Esp♌argaro out-performed his team-mate at the time Marquez, before gradually losing ground a🗹s the season wore on. 

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Espargaro, who adapted his riding style🐟 with KTM to enable a heavy use of the rear brake, was able to deploy such a technique at times with Honda, although not throughout an entire campaign, which is why the impressive performances we saw weren’t able to be carried out with any type of longevity.

Speaking ahead of the Sepang MotoGP test which begins on Friday, Espargaro detailed why he needs th꧒e rear brake: “One of the things I need the most to ride the bike is the rear brake. I need to stop the rear with the rear brake. Actually, in KTM now there are quite a lot of [former] Duc🧸ati engineers and also engineers coming from other places. With these new era bikes, you can not handle everything on the brakes with the front, so you need to help the bike a lot. 

“The rider doesn’t just need engine brake but also the rider needs to use the pedal on the r🔯ear brake. I got used to doing that on the KTM and I do that naturally now. The problem in the last two years is that I couldn’t use the rear brake.

“I always say, instead of riding with the right hand, ride with the left hand. You can do it as well but not as fast and not with the same confid🔯ence. This is what happened to me. Sometimes I could ride fast. In the pre-season I could use so much the rear brake but then I lost it slowly again and then my results went down. 

“Actually, in the pre-seaso♊n and beginning of the year I was faster than the others. I could use the rear brake and they were not used to it. I 𝓰was faster than Marc [Marquez] in the pre-season and in Qatar as well because I could use the rear brake and they were not used to. 

“T🤪hey were checking my data and sayingꦯ we need to re-learn how to ride the bike but then slowly I lost that and they gained - I was pissed off with that. 

“In GASGAS the situation⛎ is different. The bike is riding with the rear 🐲brake on the entry to corners. I like that. The front becomes less stressed. Ducati engineers say this is the way.” 

MotoGP more physical than ever

Although MotoGP bikes have become harder to ri💃de through natural development, the new Sprint race format for 2023 is also a major reason as to why that’s becoming the case.

While the mental aspect of raci🦂ng is expected to be more important than 𒅌ever this season due to qualifying and two races taking place at every round, so is the physical aspect which is why Espargaro has changed his training methods.

"♕The category is getting more and more physical and I think, especially this year, the category is going to change a lot compared to previous years," added Espargarඣo. 

"Double races every weekend and with one Sp🌳rint race per wee🐷kend it means the training program has, in my case, changed quite a lot. 

"For example, if last year one lap was important on theꦇ qualifying then now it’s doubly important because you start twice on that lap, plus one of those races is a Sp🎶rint race so it means you need to be really quick in a short time. 

"In my case I changed quite a lot t𒆙he way of training. I tried to gain a couple of kilos of muscle just to be faster in that lap and to handle the bike as best as possible in those laps."

Espargaro also believes that🗹 he’s needed to make such changes due to the fact that he is one of the oldest riders on the grid, albeit the Spaniard is only 31.  

"As I’m getting older I’m discovering how to be 🔯better." added the GASGAS KTM rider. "When you are young you just go to places, like here, I was going to Malaysia and saying let’s see what happens because the physical cond🔯ition, the body was there. 

"You can handle more or less all the situations but when you are getting older, even if I’m only 31 - it’s not 50 - but I already feel a♏ couple of changes, especially in ⛄the recovery. 

"🍌You need to take everything much more seriously: nutrition, physical condition 🅺and supplementation as well. If you go to my office it’s full of shit, full of things to try and be a little bit better. 

"Also, it’s nice because I’m a guy who likes to know myself every year. I’m lucky that Red Bull is helping us so much. We have the Red Bull athletes centre and they help us quite a bit to improve 🎶ourselves."