At KTM as elsewhere, we are starting to take stock of the 2018 season with a view to developing our 2019 action plan. Feedback marked by the injuries of the official drivers. Pol Espargaro still recovers from three, and not the least, while Mika Kallio, the test man, seriously damaged his knee. To the point that his year is already over. Next year, we will therefore have to manage our workforce differently. And this will involve the virtual disappearance of wild cards.
These are invitations honored by a third driver from the manufacturer who benefits from it. Mika Kallio was supposed to do five this season, but in Germany, the series was stopped dead in its tracks. So the director of KTM Motorsport Pete Beirer thought about what follows, and his decision is as follows: “ we have not planned a wild card in 2019. An exception could be made only for the national Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring ».
Public chat speedweek it develops : " Originally, our idea was as follows: participation in a Mika Kallio Grand Prix was a fantastic opportunity to confront developments and new products directly with the competition. But then we noticed that the private testing team was using the last day to fine-tune the bike for the race. There were then no longer many opportunities to test new parts, which will only be able to arrive in Grand Prix in a year and a half. And then you have a test rider like Mika Kallio, who also wants to shine for a future handlebar as a regular rider ».
Picking up the beast to find the grip 🔥 // Levantando la bestia para coger grip 🇹🇭 @MotoGP #ThaiGP pic.twitter.com/M7xiamUBto
— Pol Espargaró (@polespargaro) October 8, 2018
He finishes : " as a result, these drivers think too much about racing and perhaps not enough about testing tasks. This is why we are going to radically change this policy which wanted us to make up to five wild cards per an ».
Still, this new direction also makes sense with the arrival of the Tech3 team as a satellite team of the Mattighofen firm. There will no longer be two but four RC16s which will be lined up for the season in 2019. Furthermore, the rumor still insists on the recruitment of Dani Pedrosa as a test pilot alongside a Mika Kallio already confirmed. Next year, the official team will be made up of Pol Espargaro and John Zarco.
