This July, Bridgestone take a mid-season break from MotoGP and turn their attention to the famous Suzuka 8 Hour – an event the tyre manufacturer won for a record 9th time in a row last year.
Former Moto2 World Champion Pol Espargaro will join his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider in a factory-supported Yamaha team at this year’s Suzuka 8 Hours endurance road race. As he prepares to take part in the legendary event, Pol shared some time with Bridgestone to explain his initial thoughts on participating in the ‘8Tai’, who he thinks his main rivals will be and adapting his spectacular riding style from his MotoGP M1 to the Yamaha R1 superbike.
Q. Pol, as you know the Suzuka 8 Hours is such a huge event in Japan. How do you feel about having the opportunity to participate in such a prestigious race with Yamaha?
“Yeah for sure it’s a pleasure to race at Suzuka. I always heard good things about this legendary race where a lot of famous riders took part in the past, so it’s an honour for me. Obviously to ride at Suzuka during our summer break from MotoGP isn’t ideal but we will enjoy the experience and it’s great to be riding with the factory Yamaha team as well. It will be a valuable learning experience for me and I will treasure the moment.”
Q. Being a MotoGP rider is a very demanding job, so including testing and racing at Suzuka must take a lot of energy. Have you made any changes to your training programme to help you cope with the extra work load?
“You’re always changing your method of training, as you never use the same training system in MotoGP as your personal condition changes over time. Also, you need to make small changes to adapt to how your riding style evolves to suit your new bike and tyres every season. At the moment I have some problems with arm pump, but in terms of preparing for Suzuka, I haven’t had to do anything different with my training compared to MotoGP as this is already at a very high level.”
Q. Your Yamaha Factory Racing team is using Bridgestone tyres for the 8 Hours, how did they feel to you?
“The tyres felt really good, quite similar to the MotoGP tyres actually. The tyres are obviously different but the feeling with the Bridgestone tyres at Suzuka is really good, nice feeling from the front and also at the rear. Before I got on the bike I knew the tyres would work well because they’re Bridgestone, but the level of grip and feel was actually quite similar to what I have in MotoGP.”
Q. You have a very spectacular riding style in MotoGP, do you think you can ride in a similar way on the R1 at Suzuka or do you need to change some things when switching from your M1 to the R1?
“At the first test I didn’t have much time to use my spectacular style at Suzuka as we only had a few laps in the dry, but yes, I hope to adapt my riding style to the R1 as not only is it enjoyable for me, if it is also effective on track at Suzuka this would be great for me. If it is not effective, I will change my riding style a bit compared to MotoGP but either way I will manage. The important thing is I have a good feeling on the bike.”
Q. Which teams/riders do you think will pose the biggest challenge to your Yamaha Factory Racing team at Suzuka?
“For sure the HARC-Pro Honda team will be hard to beat as they have factory support from Honda, they won the last two years and this year they have some great riders. We are keeping a close eye on them, but we have to believe in our own bike, team and motivation and believe that we can beat them. It will be a big challenge as this is a new race for me and Bradley but we will do everything we can to win this race for Yamaha.”
Q. Final question; in one word, summarise how you expect the Suzuka 8 Hours race to be.
“Wow, that’s difficult. In one word I would say it will be ‘exciting’.”
