After a promising performance at Le Mans, two consecutive races, during the Grand Prix of Italy then of Catalonia, did not allow the Red Bull KTM team to increase its points capital in the World Championship, which thus increases still at 12 units a third of the way through the season.
There was therefore no shortage of reasons to work during the official IRTA test on Monday in Barcelona, as well as during the following two days devoted to private tests on the same circuit.
With Bradley Smith unavailable due to his left pinky finger, his team and the test team teamed up to work with Mika Kallio over the three days, comparing chassis configurations, testing new fairings and fine-tune motorcycle settings in low-grip conditions.
Meanwhile, after completing his Grand Prix weekend, Pol Espargaro only took a break on Tuesday to allow the Mattighofen men to return home with as much data as possible.
Pol Asparagus : “We did a very, very good job during this test here in Barcelona. I think we've gone through all the parts we've tried up to this point in the season, since we just don't have enough time during the race weekends. We tried things on Monday and then we clarified a lot what we had in our head. Maybe it wasn't the best day to set a time but it was good to confirm things and take a good step forward with the bike, especially with the electronics. I'm super happy because I think we've improved the bike a lot and that's very important for Assen with more information in hand. »
Mika Rock : “it was a good test for the wild card that I am going to do. I did a lot of laps to get better driving conditions. We focused on two different chassis plus a different rear suspension, a bike setup, a rear shock, three different types of front forks, a lot of things kept us busy all day, with almost every possibility we had. could change on the bike! We also changed the electronics a little bit and basically wanted to try the best combination of these things to get information out of it. The time was hard to improve, but we had a lot of things to test and, in the end, we are working in the right direction on the chassis side, with things where we need to go and that the GP drivers want. We will see in Assen how Bradley is; I will be there to help the team if they need me. »
Bradley Smith : “Since the accident on Saturday, we have checked my finger every 24 hours to make sure there is no infection and to observe the speed of healing. Right now the doctors are happy with how it's progressing, so first of all, we're not going to do any skin grafts or any new operations, which is fantastic. They don't expect a full recovery in the short term, but it should allow me to race in Assen. Now it's just a matter of continuing to do everything possible to speed up the recovery with creams and cleanses, so hopefully in just over a week we'll be ready to be back at almost 90% for Assen. »
Sebastian Risse (MotoGP Technical Director): “so, after the last race, we immediately continued with a very good three-day test and, looking back, we achieved a lot of milestones during these weekends, which we had to confirm here in Barcelona, checking some data to prove that the path we are taking is the right one. We struggled a bit in the last few races, not in going in the wrong direction, but more in the way the bike works on these circuits, so we just had to improve. Finally, on Wednesday, we found good settings for the upcoming races for Pol, taking some very interesting steps forward, steps that we are very happy with in terms of results and comparisons of times and consistency compared to this that we had during the race weekends. Over a weekend, it's obviously a learning process on Friday and Saturday, with Sunday the day you have to make the result a reality; we were late with this result, but now it's here, so I hope it works at the next circuit. »
