It's nothing to say that KTM had a first Grand Prix of the 2018 MotoGP season that was complicated to say the least. A disappointment that the off-season tests still foreshadowed, but which the last completed campaign, which was the first for the Austrian brand at this level, stubbornly masked. Because we will recall that the debutant RC16 finished its first championship ahead of an Aprilia RS-GP which was in its third experience… So, on the Mattighofen side we said to ourselves that we could already consider the top 5. A still far too high according to what we saw at Losail. But don't stress, the sponsor who gives wings doesn't put any pressure...
His name is Dietrich Mateschitz and he is the all-powerful boss of a Red Bull brand which is no less so. With two Formula 1 teams, contracted motorcycle riders, and the desire to support KTM's war effort at all levels, the man and his company are essential for anyone who wants to exist at the highest level of motorsport. .
As a result, he is also a wise man. And he saw his KTM compatriots fall from a height during the Qatar Grand Prix. Repeated technical problems, Pol Espargaro still convalescing and Bradley Smith At the discretion exacerbated by a problem front tire, everything, or almost everything, went wrong. What annoys the big moneyman? Nope.
The latter is intended, on the contrary, to be soothing and therefore reassuring, on speedweek : " You should not set your goals too high. You must first be able to regularly make top 10s. And that is undoubtedly what we must do this season. The team must be patient. It is only after two or three races that we will be able to set a road map”. Next stop, Argentina, in two weeks.
