Francesco Guidotti left the private Pramac team which was enjoying victories and podiums with the bike of the moment, the Ducati, for the light outfit of a factory team manager, in this case KTM. A shine which nevertheless puts it alongside the dark part of the ranking, since the RC16s proved to be the least performing motorcycles at the end of the first 2022 tests at Sepang. There is less than a month left before the start of the season in Qatar. Will the Italian start his role in a crisis situation?
It is still too early to assess the situation KTM after only the first tests on a single route. However, in MotoGP, there are signs that rarely deceive. And seeing the four RC16s grouped together at the bottom of the ranking with unappealing comments from their drivers is one that generally bodes poorly for the rest of the events. Guidotti wanted responsibility and action by wearing an orange shirt. Here it is served as a starter…
On the difficult Malaysian stage, he commented: “ we had a lot of parts to test, our pilots could not complain about a lack of work ". Then he reveals this work plan which we believed to have been abandoned with the departure of Mike Leitner : " on the one hand, we still had to recheck the parts from 2021, and there were also completely new components for the 2022 bike. We are looking for the best package and its suitable basic configuration for the first races. In the meantime, special things are being developed for the future ».
Mattighofen therefore remains a hive that is constantly buzzing. But the pilots would finally like to make their money from this diligence at work. However, we will have to wait: right now it's about combining the best available hardware from 2021 and 2022 and putting it together correctly », explained the Italian on speedweek. " We need a clear picture for our engineers of the direction we need to take in the future ". It will be recalled that the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix of the 2022 season will take place in less than a month.
Francesco Guidotti: “ test results indicate we are behind schedule«
It remains that the new parts of KTM still gave satisfaction: “ some new pieces are much better than expected, others are not, at least on this track. We need more information and we are happy with the three-day test which begins on Friday in Mandalika ».
However, the verdict of the timesheet is clear: the five other manufacturers are currently in the top 7, only KTM can't keep up. Francesco Guidotti does not want to obscure the situation: “ you can't compare winter testing with a Grand Prix weekend, because here we have up to eight hours of track time per day. During a Grand Prix, there are other conditions. But at the moment, the test results indicate that we are behind schedule. We must face this. We will get to work ».
What is waiting for Francesco Guidotti tests on the new urban circuit of Mandalika ? Manufacturers like Honda, Yamaha and Ducati have some information there because they participated in the Superbike finals in November… “ Mandalika is new for all MotoGP teams and for all riders , Note Guidotti. " We will use the same equipment there as in Sepang. We are curious to see if we can do better on another route ". Three days of testing will be completed in Indonesia.
