The presentation of the KTM troops in MotoGP for the 2021 season will begin soon. But Pit Beirer, the brand's sports director, has already revealed the broad outlines of what the upcoming campaign will be for the Austrians. And there is no doubt that we will have to follow the four RC16s who are just waiting to confirm, at the very least, their excellent performance from last year...
Pete Beirer confided in the Gazzetta Dello Sport about the expectations of KTM in preparation for the 2021 season MotoGP which will open to Qatar at the end of March. He reviews the new staff, affirming his confidence in their skills while talking about the RC16 which will be made available to them. As for the objectives, already doing as well as in 2020 would be satisfying...
A final point of view which once again wants to calm the ardor of the big boss Stefan pierer who had confided his desire to compete for the world title this year... So, 2021, is it the year of truth for KTM ? “ This has been the case all four years since the first race we participated in. Then, step by step, each season has been the year of truth, but now we are in the situation where we have to prove that we are at a certain level and that we deserve to stay with the best " to analyse Beirer.
« It is certain that much more will be expected of us now, after the first victories and the many good results in 2020. And we will no longer just say that we have scored a lot of points and that we are happy. We need to raise the level of performance, that's what we all demand of ourselves, from the pilots to the technicians to me » he adds however.
On a purely human level, it must be noted that on the 11 teams present on the grid, alone four can boast of having two drivers with at least one victory. And among them there is KTM, with Olive tree et Binder... " This is a great source of satisfaction for me, because at the start of last season we found ourselves in a situation where a lot of people didn't trust us » remember Beirer. “The end of 2019 was complicated, there was Pol’s injury and we didn’t get the results we would have liked. So at the start of 2020, even though the testing had been great and we knew the bike had grown, there was a lot of waiting ».
« We lost first Pol and then Jorge Martin who signed with Ducati and will make his debut with Pramac. At this point, with no real alternative, the ice became very thin, many said that with Brad and Miguel we would not go anywhere. Betting on them for the 2022 factory team even before the start of the world championship was a brave decision, but at the same time we knew how strong they were. Although, I for one never imagined they would win a race so quickly. So we are happy, but above all we are sure that we have the right team now » analyzes the sports director.
Pit Beirer: “for the moment, a third team is not in our plans”
And for the 2021 goals? “ It won't be easy. The first objective is therefore to repeat this fifth place, also because, to be honest, these excellent results came sooner than we expected. The bar is very high, but to say that it will definitely be better is not at all realistic, finishing fifth in a world championship is already an excellent result. There are definitely question marks, because the driver who finished 5th is no longer with us, and we will have to prove that we can stay in the leading pack regularly, even with the new generation ».
He ends with the rumor that ran for a while about a third, satellite team: “ For the moment, this is not in our plans. I'm not saying no a priori, but our commitment remains important, we started with one team, then two, and now the most important thing is to stabilize ourselves at the same level as the competition. A third team would certainly have an impact in terms of logistics, personnel and costs. Maybe it would allow you to bring two stronger riders into the family, but for now it's not a problem for us. We certainly don't say no a priori, but first a team has to ask us, and then we have to be able to do it, also taking into account the long-term interest of Dorna, which wants each manufacturer to have a satellite team ».
We will recall that KTM et Tech3 live an idyll which is also symbolized by a common presentation. Although the agreement has not been initialed, it is understood that this collaboration will continue at least until 2026.
