The 2021 season will not have been easy for the Austrian manufacturer, who had to deal with the withdrawal of technical concessions, an injury to Miguel Oliveira, and the continued learning of Brad Binder.
For its fifth full season in MotoGP, KTM had high hopes, born from its first two successes obtained in the premier category last year, whether through its factory team with the victory of Brad Binder in the Czech Republic, or through Tech3 with the two triumphs of Miguel Oliveira, first in Styria on the lands of the Austrian manufacturer, as well as in Portugal for the finale of the 2020 season.
A small downside was still to stand in the way of Mattighofen's troops for 2021: the same victories at the origin of this optimism implied de facto the withdrawal of the technical concessions which they had enjoyed since their arrival full time in the discipline in 2017, thus limiting private testing to the bone as well as the number of engines available to the team.
A successful first third of the season
Let's not be bad-mouthed: initially this new situation did not seem to disturb KTM in the least, which had a great start to the season, notably thanks to Oliveira who managed to get involved during the first third of the season in the title race, especially after his series of three consecutive podiums between Mugello and Sachsenring, culminating in a new victory this time in Catalonia.
Then nothing more, or at least not much, except an improbable victory acquired by Binder in the wet and on slick tires (!) in Austria, brightening up a second part of the season much duller than the first . “We definitely have mixed feelings about the past year, because we've had both good periods and others where we clearly haven't been in the game.”, recognized former KTM race director Mike Leitner, since replaced by Francesco Guidotti (defector from Pramac) and past consultant to the Austrian team, at the microphone of the MotoGP official website.
“It was the first season where we no longer took advantage of technical concessions, and this led us to change the way we work, our procedures, the way we organize our tests as well as our race weekends. To be honest, this is something that has put us in difficulty at times. Despite this, I think we managed the situation rather well with two victories and several other podiums. »
« The withdrawal of technical concessions has sometimes put us in difficulty »
Oliveira diminished in the second half of the season
It must be said that although the cancellation of the technical concessions did not unduly compromise the performance of the RC16, things still got worse for the Austrian manufacturer when Oliveira injured his wrist in Austria. From then on the Portuguese, whose desire to continue racing considerably lengthened his recovery time, was no longer able to fight for the first places, or even for the top 10.
A real source of regret for Leitner, who was no longer able to count on the precious technical feedback from the Lusitanian in the development of the motorcycle. « When things are going well for Miguel, he is able to run incredible races. There was still a period this season, just after his victory in Catalonia, where he was in second position in the championship. We all know his potential, but the problem this season has been his right wrist injury sustained during his accident in Austria. This put him on the sidelines a bit in terms of performance. It must also be said that at times he was really unlucky, for example being the victim of accidents that he had not caused [for example when he was harpooned by Iker Lecuona in Portimão, causing an early end to the race with the raising of the red flag]. »
« Miguel's injury sidelined him in terms of performance »
Qualifications, Binder's weak point
Meanwhile, his teammate Binder was hardly in a more comfortable position, the South African, who was entering his second season in MotoGP this year, and who was discovering a number of new circuits in the premier category in 2020 after a first campaign with a very restricted schedule in terms of routes visited, due to the health context.
Direct consequence: he often suffered in qualifying, struggling to even enter the top 10 (he only appeared there four times in 18 Grands Prix on Saturday). Fortunately, number 33 was able to count on his racing knowledge to get back on track on Sunday, this time with 13 finishes among the top ten.
A great consistency which allowed him to finish in sixth place in the championship, to the great satisfaction of Leitner: “Our two drivers alternated between good and bad results, but in the end Brad Binder still managed to finish sixth in the championship, so I think that shows how difficult it was for everyone to maintain a consistent level of competitiveness throughout the season », explains the Austrian.
“As far as Brad is concerned, we can say that this was his first full season for him, because last year due to Covid he did not discover many routes. So he had to learn a lot this year, and he did pretty well. He didn't really perform well in qualifying, but he always made up for it very well in the race. This is therefore the major area of progress for us. On the other hand, he testified to having a lot of heart on the bike, like at Spielberg where he made the decision to stay on the track with slick tires while the rain intensified, a risky decision but which allowed him to achieve victory. So he's a very talented driver, but he's still young and so it's going to be interesting to see what he can do next year, because he's a really hard worker and we're very happy with him. »
“Brad testified that he had a lot of heart on the bike”
Promising prospects for 2022
In the end, KTM was unable to do better than fourth in the constructors' championship, just nine points behind Honda, another team which has not been spared from injuries and setbacks this season. But with a more experienced Binder, an Oliveira finally restored in 2022, a new organization and new operating methods for the development of his future prototype, there is little doubt that the Austrian team will have the necessary weapons to take a new step forward. next season, and thus display much better regularity.
“Overall I would say we need to progress in our ability to extract the full potential of our bike”, continues Leitner. “It's all the more important as we saw this season that when we were able to do that, we could easily aim for podiums and victories. » The competition is warned.
