MotoGP | Espargaro: “Sterlacchini didn’t work in KTM, but he’s what Honda needs”

Motorsport.com reported on Wednesday that Fabiano Sterlacchini is in a very advanced stage of negotiations with Honda, which is aiming to sign him to its technical structure for next year.

At KTM, the Italian engineer has spent the last year and a half with the youngest of the Espargaro brothers. Pol, after retiring as a regular rider at the end of 2023, has moved to the role of tester. From this new situation, the Catalan has assimilated the working method of Sterlacchini, whose contract KTM has not renewed, as announced last month.

For “Polyccio”, the collapse of KTM in this first phase of the season shows that the philosophy imposed by the man who at the time was Gigi Dall’Igna’s right-hand man in Ducati has not worked with the Mattighofen manufacturer. However, according to Espargaro, this does not mean that he cannot bring a lot in a possible landing in Honda.

“Sterlacchini in KTM is not the same as in Honda. KTM already had a working method and he changed it to impose his own. Things didn’t go the way we hoped,” Espargaro underlined in a chat with Motorsport.com today at the Red Bull Ring, where he will race as a wild card this weekend.

“Fabiano is an intelligent and very competent person. In Honda they need a person like that, because he is a leader inside the factory with the engineers. This is what Honda needs, a European who leads the group”, adds the Granollers rider, who underlines Sterlacchini’s organizational and coordination nature, in addition to his technical knowledge.

“He is more of an organizational profile, not only in the race, but also in the tests. He is very good at designing the processes and protocols that must be put into practice to develop the components and he will mark the calendars to be respected for the development of these,” adds Espargaro, who is perfectly aware of HRC’s shortcomings, given that he raced there in 2021 and 2022 as Marc Marquez’s teammate.

“Even though he understands a lot technically, it didn’t work for us, this is evident and the results show it. But Honda is not in our situation and I think it can help them”, concludes Espargaro, who will compete in Austria for his second Grand Prix of the season, after the one already held in Italy, at Mugello.