Zarco, who made the transfer to KTM from Tech 3 Yamaha, has endured a troublesome first two races aboard the RC16 bike, ending 15th in each Qatar and Argentina.
The Frenchman admitted after the Termas de Rio Hondo race final month that “everything I do is not working” and that his struggles together with his new equipment left him feeling “exhausted”.
KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer mentioned throughout the Qatar weekend that the Austrian producer’s star signing has taken longer than anticipated to stand up to hurry, with Espargaro having up to now scored 10 factors this 12 months to Zarco’s two.
Espargaro believes Zarco must be taught to take such feedback on the chin – stating the barbs that Beirer aimed and each him and then-teammate Bradley Smith in earlier years.
“This is a factory team, it comes with good salary, good bike, good attention but also big expectations,” mentioned Espargaro. “A rider who’s right here must deal with every part.
“I do know Johann is an excellent rider, is gifted, he’s calmer than me, so I can’t give him any recommendation as a result of I feel he’s gonna deal with it higher than me.
“Pit [criticised] me and Bradley last year and is doing [the same] with Johann, but what Pit is saying is to try and make us better. We need to take it in that direction, not in another way.”
He added: “For positive Johann wants time to get tailored to the bike and I’m positive he’s actually quick.
“He did the pole in Qatar final 12 months and he is been within the podium final 12 months right here [in Argentina] so we can’t say that Johann will not be a superb rider. We all have to keep in mind that Johann’s been on the high of the extent in MotoGP. He wants time, he’ll arrive.”
Espargaro nonetheless stopped wanting saying Zarco’s activity to adapt to the KTM is a taller order than his personal job creating the KTM from scratch in 2017.
“You can’t imagine, evaluating the bike now to the way it was the bike in Qatar the primary 12 months,” he mentioned.
“This bike was coming from a white paper, nothing was made on this bike and we wanted to develop a motorbike from zero and this was so arduous.
“Lots of crashes that I had, I’m not saying it was due to the bike but it surely was as a result of I have to go so on the restrict that generally it occurs.
“For positive Johann now will get a a lot better bike than what we had at first [of the project], however for positive it is not adequate for his stage and never adequate to be on the positions he was up to now.”
Espargaro stays satisfied that it is solely a matter of time earlier than KTM is ready to combat for high positions, having been boosted by his 10th-place end in Argentina.
“We are on this group from the start, figuring out that the bike was new and figuring out that we needed to work so much to be within the high, however we’re doing it,” he continued.
“And if you happen to examine the papers we’re a lot nearer than in Qatar first race [2017]; if we proceed on this line we’re gonna be quickly on the high.”
Pol Espargaro, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / LAT Images