Pol Espargaró: "I’ve fallen in love with the YZF R1!"
The MotoGP rider is expecting great things for Yamaha on their return to WorldSBK.
2013 Moto2™ Champion Pol Espargaró was at the Yamaha team launch this week in Barcelona as a representative of Monster Yamaha Tech3, but also gave his opinion on the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team, having last year taken the new YZF R1 to glory in the Suzuka 8 Hours as teammate to Bradley Smith and Katsuyuki Nakasuga.
“I’m proud that Yamaha now has such great representation in WorldSBK. After the amazing results they’re getting in MotoGP it’s a great time to start trying the same in World Superbike,” the Catalan rider told WorldSBK.com. “I’ve fallen in love with this bike. The agility of the bike is really high...it's light, it's powerful, it's beautiful to ride. I'm completely sure that the results of the Superbike guys will be amazing.”
The MotoGP™ World Championship rider is convinced that the new YZF R1, to be ridden by Alex Lowes and Sylvain Guintoli, will set the WorldSBK grid alight despite the high level of competition: “You have doubts?! It doesn’t make sense to think that another guy will beat this bike and these two talented riders...and not because they pay me to say that! This bike is amazing, so if they do things correctly and they work together as a team, I'm sure they will get amazing results in the first year."
So does Espargaró recommend tuning in to see the WorldSBK season unfold?
“Yeah, it’s a great time to start following World Superbike! I will be watching these two talented guys, Lowes and Guintoli, and I’m still in love with this bike. Maybe I’ll race in the Suzuka 8 hours again this year, and if Yamaha invite me to WorldSBK of course I will visit!”
