Pol Espargaro will step down as lead rider at the end of this season to «make way» for Pedro Acosta at GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3, and when it was confirmed there was some controversy, with the rider saying that it wasn’t a ‘unilateral’ decision. Analysing the situation, the youngest of the Espargaro brothers considered that there had been some mistakes in the management of the whole situation.
Speaking to DAZN, the #44, who in 2024 will become a test rider for the manufacturer, began by saying that he doesn’t like to talk about the subject from a negative point of view, about the manufacturer with which he has a contract: ‘I feel bad because I don’t like to criticise the factory I work for, the one that pays me and looks after me’.
Even so, Espargaro sees some mistakes in the whole way the Acosta/MotoGP subject has been managed: ‘It was a management mistake on KTM’s part, we’ve talked about this many times and they have many contractual and rider management faults, and this was one of them. You can’t have a rider who has options to move up to MotoGP, which was obvious that Pedro would have that path, and have other riders signed or even with a plus one and renew him knowing that you’re going to find yourself in this situation’.
The confirmation of Acosta’s promotion to MotoGP came at the beginning of july, although it took the austrian manufacturer almost two months to resolve this confusion it had created over the spaniard’s place in the category.