On the occasion of the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, the director of KTM Motorsport, Pit Beirer, welcomes the progress of the Austrian firm's MotoGP, while asking the maximum from its riders.
His arguments are clear: ten days ago, Pol Espargaró took 12th place in Assen with the KTM RC16, just 15,8 seconds behind the winner, Marc Márquez, while a year earlier, he had conceded 1' 09” against the winner who was then Valentino Rossi. A progression of almost a minute which could however be completed by a final exploit from its pilots, present or future…
Pete Beirer: “We were more than a minute behind the winner of the 2017 race in Assen. This time it was only a little over 15 seconds. Everything is getting closer, even if the rankings weren't quite at the top yet. With this small gap on Márquez, however, we can say that we certainly do not have a bad bike. If the gap is reduced by a few more seconds, we will achieve very good results.”
To reduce this gap, the man from Mattighofen intends to play on technique (we are still waiting for the “magic” engine) but also on the mentality of his drivers: “I have to remove this team bug from time to time, which is to think that we are at the limit of the bike. At some point the pilot must also make a contribution. Schumi won world championships with a car that was inferior to the competition at the time. Rossi also won the World Champion title at a time when the Yamaha was probably no better than the Honda.”
Pit Beirer thus implicitly paints the panorama of a team which could be even more motivated, the pilots by the performance of the motorcycles, and the technicians by the performances of the pilots.
But is not Schumacher ou Red who wants, and in this context, Johann zarco is a bit expected as the savior…
Pit Beirer: “He will certainly revive the team internally.”
Let us note, however, that this progression of almost a minute compared to last year is not the usual norm, as evidenced by our table of race gaps with the winner published below...
| Espargaro 2017 | Espargaro 2018 | Winning 2017/2018 Espargaro | Smith 2017 | Smith 2018 | Gain 2017/2018 Smith | |
| Qatar | 33,6 | X | 39,7 | 31,7 | +8 | |
| Argentina | 43 | 31 | +12 | 43,4 | X | |
| USA | X | 37,2 | 82,09 | 48,4 | +33.69 | |
| Jerez | X | 21,1 | 47,9 | 21,7 | +26.2 | |
| France | 52,6 | 32,3 | +20.3 | 53,1 | 38,2 | +14.9 |
| Mugello | X | 20,2 | 50,8 | 22,4 | +28.4 | |
| Barcelona | 48,9 | 36,5 | +12.4 | X | X | |
| Assen | 69,3 | 15,8 | +53.5 | X | 29 |
Source: speedweek
