When Dani Pedrosa left competition and also Honda to join the ranks of KTM, he wanted it mentioned in his contract that he could remain silent. By that, mean that he freed himself from the obligation to do interviews. He also obtained a promise from his employer not to force him to run. We were then in 2018 and, since then, he has freelanced in Austria in 2021. In 2022, he is also speaking again. This is a sign that things are moving in the RC16 project. Here is what he says about it, but not only that since he gives us his point of view on the secret of the Ducati…
Dani Pedrosa is an authority in terms of general knowledge of a MotoGP whose technique in particular is also a subject that he masters. And for good reason: after a solid and long career at Honda, he got involved in the project KTM which is said to mature in 2023. And the Spaniard does not deny this trend. Better, he argues it like this on speedweek : " the riders know very well where the weaknesses of the bike are and why they struggle to be consistently ahead on all circuits and why they sometimes struggle in qualifyings » he begins.
Then he details: “ the KTM is easy to control and manage with worn tires. But with new tires we couldn't make any significant improvements. This weak point prevented us from reaching the first starting positions. You know, there are problems with the front tires when you follow an opponent in the slipstream. Then the tire pressure rises to crazy heights – and you lose grip. You can then no longer overtake and no longer gain space ". Except when we call each other Brad Binder...
The expertise made, Dani Pedrosa gives the solution: we know we need to make our bike more competitive for qualifying. This is one of the key elements. Technically, I can't go into that much detail. But we discovered two problems related to our weakness in quality. I think that we can solve one of two problems for 2023. This is my hope. We still have doubts about the second problem. We are still looking for a solution. We are still working on it ».
Dani Pedrosa: “les pneus sont définitivement un point clé et Ducati utilise mieux les pneus que la concurrence"
On his way, he gives his feelings on domination Ducati observed in MotoGP: “ tires are definitely a key point. You will often see that the compound is best suited for a particular type of motorcycle on a particular track. Then, on the next plot, a different mix enters the allocation and this gives more preference to another job... This year you could see that it was easier for the Ducati riders to go a second faster with the new soft tires. As a result, they placed the eight Ducatis very far in front on the grid. It's more difficult for the remaining teams to be ahead on the grid ».
He finishes : " Ducati benefits because they have the most motorcycles on the field. And apparently they use tires better than the competition. Other manufacturers can only be competitive if the compound fits the bike. But if the compound doesn't match as perfectly with the machine, there are problems. This also applies to KTM. maybe Ducati has found a better balance between hard and soft compounds. This allows them to cope better. But that's just my thought. I don't know if this is correct ". To meditate…
