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Pit Beirer Petrucci KTM

The KTM sporting director has thrown a wrench into the transfer market, which is already in turmoil. He thus affirms that among the orange tunics, everything was also open with a view to 2023. An astonishing position since we thought the positions of Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were at least stabilized until the beginning of 2024. But visibly, he will have to defend his position from 2022…

KTM is definitely not happy with the way the 2021 season has turned out. Mike leitner paid the price, even if the official version wants to present its replacement by Guidotti as a strategy commonly considered for ages. Now, it is the driver positions that are the subject of comments and, even before the 2022 campaign begins, Pete Beirer warns that there is no job security behind the handlebars of an RC16.

Public chat speedweek, he blurted out like this: “ At KTM we each have four MotoGP locations for the next five years. So far, no one has been set for a place in 2023. We will fill the four spots at Red Bull and Tech3 after the 2022 season with the driver, performance and team that best match ". It will be noted that Miguel Oliveira et Brad Binder have contracts KTM until the end of 2023. It was previously assumed that they would be part of the Red Bull team until this term.

But apparently it's not quite so clear anymore. If we follow Pete Beirer, we can consider internal transfers between the factory team and the partner Tech3. However, as this is not so clear, the door remains open to external recruitment, in a transfer market which is already in full swing while the 2022 financial year is still far from starting.

On the partnership and bridges with Tech3, Pit Beirer clarified: “ we have an excellent relationship with the owner of the Tech3 team, Hervé Poncharal. We now have eight technicians under contract with KTM working in the Hervé team. Hervé therefore opens the doors to our engineers. You feel as comfortable with him as you do with your factory Red Bull team. We have further strengthened the Tech3 team in the fall, we have now appointed Esteban Garcia as technical manager. We are well positioned for the upcoming season. We will also be strong partners there for Remy Gardner and Raúl Fernandez ».

KTM Pit Beirer

Pit Beirer announces all four KTMs are available for 2023

But then, who is this warning message addressed to? Probably not to Brad Binder either: “ Brad Binder fought in an exemplary manner during our weak phase ", saluted Beirer. " His worst race result after the summer break was ninth. Iker Lecuona also showed good results on several occasions in August and September. He landed in the top ten twice, then competed in Aragon for sixth place and finished eleventh ". But the Spaniard was not selected...

« In fact, Binder showed astonishing consistency with the KTM RC16 in his second year in MotoGP: he wrote only one zero in 18 competitions and secured 6th, 7th, 9th, 9th , 11th, 10th and 7th after winning at Spielberg-2. He often managed to fight for fourth place from the most desperate starting position in races ", added Pete Beirer.

Quitus, therefore, for the South African. On the other hand, black clouds are gathering above the head of Miguel Oliveira : " from August our performances were poor and Miguel Oliveira also injured his wrist in FP1 at the Styrian Grand Prix" , said Pete Beirer, director of KTM Motorsport. “ If the team is weak, the bike is not competitive and at the same time the rider has a weak phase, then it becomes difficult to get out of this cycle ". A cycle which has resulted in only nine points scored in the last nine races. There is no doubt that the Portuguese will know how to interpret the message that Pit Beer just launched.

KTM Pit Beirer

All articles on Pilots: Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, Raúl Fernández, Remy Gardner

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