KTM in general and Miguel Oliveira in particular were expected to be the outsiders of choice in this return to MotoGP after three last convincing Grands Prix completed just before the summer break. But the expected fireworks from the Austrians turned out to be a damp squib. The RC16 fell to the bottom of the timesheet as quickly as it rose and the Austrians are currently keeping up appearances thanks to the pugnacity of their Brad Binder who knows how to seize the slightest opportunity to shine. But the problem is deep and sports director Pit Beirer recognizes it…
KTM experienced an improvement this season which ultimately turned out to be a flash in the pan. After a disappointing start to the campaign in Qatar, the changes made at the start of the European campaign proved so effective that Mattighofen's rapid reaction force was praised. But upon returning from the summer break, the orange bellows fell back as quickly as it had gone up. And by the brand's sports director's own admission Pete Beirer, it remains a mystery...
He says thus about speedweek : " if we could explain this drop in detail, we would have corrected it before Misano. This is a really difficult situation for us because we had a complicated start to the season during the two Doha Grand Prix. Then we took action with the ten most important points and we were able to implement them all at Mugello at the end of May ».
He adds : " there was also a risk, because it was a package that we could not test beforehand. Then we came to Mugello with it and it worked. We finished second at Mugello with Miguel, we won at Barcelona, we finished second at Sachsenring and we finished fourth at Assen ". Enough to say that you have come out of the sand. And yet… “ Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and thought these were exactly the right steps. With results like this, you have no doubts. We then went on summer vacation and said, "Okay, we've just made a good move, let's work on the bike for next year now." » We were unable to do another full update for 2021 ».
Pete Beirer and his troops have seen what happened next and are now drawing new conclusions: “ in truth, these three tracks probably misled us a little about the character of the bike. We realized a little in Assen before the summer break that it was already more difficult than in Mugello, Barcelona and the Sachsenring. But we didn't expect that every race after the summer break would be a little more difficult. We had two very good races at Spielberg. But the assets we had before, for example cornering speed, we have lost. ».
The sports director objectively takes stock of the situation: “ Brad Binder won the second Spielberg Grand Prix. But without the downpour, he would probably have finished 6th with the slicks. But it's not like sixth place in MotoGP is a bad result. And in the Styrian Grand Prix he finished fourth » adds the KTM manager.
KTM: “ everything we changed only made the bike worse«
« We were very competitive at Spielberg in 2020. Following the improvements that worked so well at Mugello 2021, we expected to do even better this year. But Spielberg was the first moment this year when we woke up and realized something was wrong : there were certain types of turns and an acceleration phase that our bike did not do well. This was repeated at other routes, including Misano. Everything we changed a week ago at Misano on Friday and Saturday only made the bike worse. We didn't bring any new test parts for the race weekend either, because Miguel was a little lost. He won a race on this bike three months ago in Catalonia. We told him we would take the Barcelona bike for him now, and it can't have gotten out of control ».
« So we didn't test anything with him during the Misano weekend. He took the motorcycle and rode it. With Brad Binder, something has changed for Aragon. He had a good race there and finished in 6th place. So we said to ourselves: for the weekend in Misano, we have to be there on Friday, then the adjustments will follow. But we found ourselves in difficulty this Friday… »
We see that it seems complicated to say the least to understand a situation which turns out to be unstable because it changes. And yet, we must clearly define elements of understanding in order to move forward: “ at Misano, we suddenly had too much rear grip which pushed the bike onto the front wheel. This is why we saw a relatively large number of falls over the three days. Not just with us. Now we could have a long technical discussion and elaborate on what we have changed on the bike since Spielberg. But the fact is that we were too slow in the last races in August and September ».
Beirer finished : " we saw progress in the Misano test on Tuesday and Wednesday. Now we hope that they will also prove themselves on the other four tracks ». KTM is therefore still not sure of anything about the level of his RC16.
