After riding last week during the three days of testing at Sepang with the Finn Mika Kallio, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team will face its five competing manufacturers this Monday with Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro. The situation for the Austrians is far from easy for their arrival in the world championship in the absence of data from previous years and a bike that is not yet complete.
Mika Kallio:
“We weren't too lucky with the weather. There was heavy rain and the grip level on the track was low. Even when the track started to dry, we saw that our lap time and the feeling with the tires were not at a good level, but it was a problem for everyone. It would have been good to see how things would have gone in better conditions during this important test. We tried different things and that meant we always had to push the bike to the limit to get the best lap times possible. Still, I think we found some solutions with the new framework. There were three, and the one I chose was better than last year's, so that was good. We also improved lap times a bit. In general, we haven't had any big problems. The bike was running well. It was important, and I hope we can do good things for the other bikes and find a good direction for the team. »
Mike leitner (MotoGP Team Manager):
“Since the Valencia test we had information that was in detail a little different from what we had previously had from Mika, so for the first time we tried to prepare for the Sepang test based on the questions that the pilots asked us. The private tests here with Mika were very positive and we were able to prepare as well as possible, but we will only see if it was positive in the next three days. I think for us the time between here and Doha is probably very important. We have prepared a lot of things – chassis, electronics, engines – and now we have to try them calmly, so that when we go to the Doha race weekend, we will take with us what the company has developed for us . It is clear that we are competing for the first year and we do not yet have the base of the other teams. »
Sebastian Risse (Technical director) :
“We had two main objectives last week. Preparing the equipment for the race team – that is, checking things like brake calipers and all the functions of the engines which we will now hand over to the factory drivers. Everything will have to work well when we get on the bikes on Monday, so we just had the equipment for the two race bikes. On the other hand, we wanted to take another step in the development of the chassis. We've had several here, and we've tried to gather information to prepare a pre-selection for the drivers, but in the end they're the ones who have to ride the stuff. They need to know it's going in the right direction. But time is limited, and conditions here haven't been very good. Sometimes you have to compromise and test the most important things in order to see the bigger picture. We used our time to work with Mika, to establish what the main priorities are, the greatest potential, and what we want to try. Trying the bike, getting to know her and the team is the program for the next three days. The drivers and our team have been on winter break, but now it's the beginning, and we have to see how it goes. First of all, we have to look closely to see how the things we changed are working and we have to do a lot of tricks to get to a good level. Then we can make good decisions about further development. »
Photos from Valencia tests / Copyright: © Focus Pollution KTM
