What compels a MotoGP rider to return to something that almost killed them?

Life has a particularly cruel way of biting you on the arse. Pol Espargaro moved to the factory Honda squad for 2021, leaving behind a KTM project he in no small part was responsible for developing into a race winner, hopeful of taking the big next step in his MotoGP career.

Two podiums aside, what transpired was two years of misery as the RC123V struggled…