Pol Espar﷽garo has admitted relief at not racing full-time this year due to the physical toll of injuries.

Espargaro’s 10 seasons as a MotoGP rider were e🐬nded by KTM’s decision to replace him with Pedro Acosta in their 🐬Tech3 GASGAS project this season.

His 2023 was blighted by an awfulꦯ crash in Portimao on the first weekend which resulted in jaw, spine and lung injuries.

He will♍ be a test and r𝓰eserve rider for KTM in 2024.

“Bec🌠ome a MotoGP rideওr again? Phew, well I don't know,” he told .

“Honestly, in the tests I looked good and I feel fas🐷t.

“And, furthermore, I am recovering my optimal physical condition, which is what I lost aꦡfter the injury.

“In any case, God will say.”

But the injur♒ies suffered a year ago have changed Espargaro’s minﷺd-set slightly.

“When you are young yജ💙ou forget it quickly,” he said.

“But as you get older it 🔥is a backpack ൩that gets heavier and heavier.

“When you get up you n꧑otice pain that you didn't have, and that is due to falls you have had.

“I have to confess that in manyℱ mo🥂ments I do feel relieved to no longer race full time.

“To give an example, I spoke with my brother who fღell at turn 5🌃 in Qatar doing the fastest lap.

“He was going very well and he fell and he said to me: 'I hit a terrible blow, my hand hurts a lot, I think I have suffered a fracture and I have 𝓡to get up in weeks to see how I do...'

“Well, I don't miss that.

“Maybe what ev🐼eryone sees on television is the races, the atmosphere, the public, I'm going to miss that a lot.

“But the injuries, the stress, the traumas and the confrontations with r༒ival🍸s, no, one cannot miss it.

“In short, right now I'm fine the way I am.”

Espargaro, as well as his new role as a test and reserve rider, will also work as a TV presenter f⛦or DAZN who broadcast MotoGP in Spain.

It is a role wꦰhich Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo alrea♕dy hold.

“It's going to be a little diffeꦜrent from Dani's because I'm going to be at the races.

“My role as a commentator at the races is to bring the technical field a little closer to people's homes because we're seeing lately how motorcycles look more and more like F1 with more aer𒆙odynamics and more technical gadgets on the bike.

“That is often very difficult to un🔯derstand. “People may not know why a rider in the middle of the race starts to slow down and slows down and is overtaken by another competitor.

“Or how factories work and why a factory works better on one circuit and not on another, and perhaps all that is technical canꦜ be brought a little closer to the viewer from the circuit.

“I think it is a very interesting job.”