Aleix Espargaro has spoken of the "hurt" he felt when learning that Suzuki had signed Andrea Iannone through one of his mechan🌞ics, and revealed he is now e🔜ntering the new season with a renewed sense of purpose.

In a frank interview held soon after Aprilia's MotoGP team launch, Espargaro detailed his misery at a lack of competitiveness at the beginning of 2016, as the switch to Michelin rub👍ber penalised his aggressive, late-braking stylওe.

"I cried a lot, a lot, a lot after the warm-up at the Qatar GP," he said of that trying o💃pening to the year. "I never cried in my life because of a result in MotoGP, or in a race. But I was desperate. I wasn't enjoying it."

A pragmatis❀t, the elder of the Espargaro brothers accepted that, with his up-and-do✅wn results in mind, Suzuki - a factory that, in his words, treated him like "a king" during his two-year stay - may be looking elsewhere to complete their rider line-up for 2017.

It was, however, their means of informing him that left a bad taste. Arriving🥃 in Mugello for the sixth race of the year, Espargaro learned of Suzuki's acquisition through a casual interaction with his mechanics, rather than a member of team management.

"It hurt me," he admitted. "Actually, the two years I was in Suzuki I was a king. Everything I needed, I had it. Everything I asked for, I had it. It was everything fantastic.

"But, the last part, the way they did... I mean, if they decide that Iannone was my replacement, that's OK. I'm not the boss of Suzuki. I would agree. But for me, the way they did everything in the middle of the GP, they talk with the mechanics before me.

"For me, i♛t was not the correct way. 🔯When you are in a difficult moment as I was, I never talked bad of the Suzuki. I never said that the Suzuki was s**t when I was crashing. Never, ever.

"I was trying chassis, trying everything the engineers told me. ꦬSo I felt a little bit bad. But, you know, things are like this. This♏ world is not easy!"

On that afternoon in Tuscany that upset him so, he continued: "I remember when we arrived in Mugello, I arrived on Wednesday and my mechanics told me, 'Aleix, I don't know if you know but we just made a meeting thꦓis morning and Iannone is coming.'

"I said, 'What!?' They said, 'Yeah, yeah, they told me abo🍸ut Iannone.' I said, 'What? But who told you?' 'They [Suzuki] made a meeting with all of us♛. Hello. Good morning!'

"For me, it was not the way to do it. But it was the only thing that really hurt me because I was not competitive. I know. It's very easy. I was not competitive so another can come. This is very clear. But,ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ the way the did it..."

The Catalan nonetheless recovered his selꦰf-belief and continued adapting to Michelin's new front tyre through the season. By Aragon, he was scrapping for the front six once again, an🌞d podium fights soon followed in Japan and Australia.

More than that however, Espargaro pointed to a desire to prove those who feel Aprilia is a significant step down from Suzuki wrong as a strong motivating factor g♓oing into 2017, his eighth full-time season in🐻 MotoGP.

"What I like a lꦡot is that a lot of people told me after leaving Suzuki and now going to Aprilia is two steps down. So this gives me a lot of motivation.

"I trained more than ever in my life this winter. I've lost three kilos from last season. So I'm fully ready to get aboard this𒉰 project. I think we started better than what everybody expect."

CLICK HERE to read th🎶e full interviꦉew with Aleix Espargaro