After a promising 2017, the 2018 season proved difficult for KTM. The problems started from the first tests at Sepang with a very big fall for Pol Espargaro who was seriously injured again twice during the season, to his vertebrae in Brno and to his collarbone in Aragon.
Height of bad luck, Mika Kallio, official test driver for Mattighofen, was also seriously injured at the Sachsenring, which did not help the development of the RC 16.
And yet, this one really needed it because although externally it has barely evolved, it actually uses a new engine which required starting almost from scratch.
Espargaro Pol explains this in great detail in a very interesting interview published on the Spanish site Motorbikemag.es :
“After last year, we all expected much better, but we also made a mistake in thinking that growth would be exponential, and that wasn't the case. When you get down to a second or two, the effort you have to make is enormous to reduce that last second. Last year, at the start of the season, everything KTM brought was always to improve, because we knew our weak points and the bike was constantly improving. But there comes a time when this progression stops completely and another, more complicated progression begins; you have to be a lot more careful, because every piece you try can either move you forward or set you back a lot. There are also false sensations during the Grands Prix, which seem to work a lot better, and then you get to other races and it doesn't really feel like that anymore.
Also, we changed the concept of the engine a bit, and the concept of the bike in general, and it doesn't work overnight. That takes time. With the old bike we had a year and a half, and with this one only six months, so it's difficult to get the results we got with the old one. It takes time and everything seems to go very quickly, but sometimes we have to stop and think that we have only been in MotoGP for a little over a year and a half, while factories like Honda or Yamaha have been around for many years . Fighting with them for such a short time is complicated
This year we had to start from scratch, because with the new engine concept we also had to start with a new chassis, because the engine is mounted with different mountings than last year. We almost had to start with the A (first chassis), although it is true that all the chassis evolutions we made helped us a lot to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. We almost had to start from scratch and we have already tested some chassis with the new engine, so we will continue the tests, and I think we will have a lot of work during this pre-season…”.
The Granollers driver then discusses the points still to be improved…
“In terms of the engine, we have taken a very big step forward, but we are at a point where we have to continue to improve it. That's not what people think of when they talk about the engine and imagine that it only generates top speed or acceleration, but that's not true. The engine also gives more maneuverability, more cornering speed, inertia makes you stop the bike sooner or later... With this new engine model, we still have to find out what we need to improve. The engine we use now works better and allows us to do things we couldn't do before, but it's true that there are also things against it, because we lost a little grip in the turns when the motorcycle is very inclined. I think what we need now is time, experience, laps, hours… and I think we will have that in pre-season. Because of my injury and Mika's (Kallio) injury, we weren't able to make as much progress with this engine as we would have liked, nor were we able to try all the things that KTM had stored in their hat. Next year, with all the reinforcement, it will surely be easier.”
Finally, to close the technical aspect, the 2 Moto2013 world champion discusses electronics, an increasingly important area for the final performance of a MotoGP, with in particular his point of view on the transition to the central unique inertial mandatory for the 2019 season…
“You always lack that, you’re never perfect. The experiment I was talking about is based on this electronics that everyone has developed so much and where we still lack information. When changing the engine we had to reset a bit and start from scratch. Next year will be a little easier for us; we are not going to take a step backwards, but the others will, because we have not yet reached this point of evolution to take this step backwards, while the other factories have done so.
In addition, we have reinforcements in the electronics section with people coming from other sites, including Magneti Marelli, to help us in this area. Apart from the fact that everyone will go backwards, we will take a step forward. I hope that with this we can get a little closer to others.”
As Michele Pirro, Espargaro Pol therefore confirms that the inertial unit compulsory for 2019 will be a real step backwards, some factories having apparently used this artifice to “boost” unique electronics…
