Aleix Espargaro claims he already feels more comfortable at Suzuki than he did at Forward Racing after a positive test at Sepang. The Spaniard enjoyed a productive week with minimal reliability problems and believes the team are making great strides towards their first Grand Prix in over three years at Losail next month.
“Overall I’m very happy with the first test and we have to be proud of improving a lot of the reliability of the engine. We had no problems in three days which is great and the atmosphere of the team is really fantastic. I already feel better than last year as I am very comfortable with the team. It’s very important for me that I feel the people working together are my family; so I’m very happy about this!”
Espargaro ended the test in tenth position with a 2:00.486 and the pace of the GSX-RR was also a source of great encouragement.
“I‘m also happy that the bike is improving and developing really quickly: From the first test I think that our bike is not so-far-off the factory Yamaha and Ducati, so we have to be proud of that – although we still have to continue really hard. We finished the test 1.6-seconds away from the factory Honda, so we need to be closer at the next test. I know that the Suzuki engineers and technicians will work really hard at the factory and I will also train harder in my house to be fully-fit. It won’t be easy during the first part of the season, as everything is still new, but I’m really optimistic.”