The Italian Grand Prix is approaching and the factory KTM carries herself there on her cloud of the French Grand Prix from which she has still not come down. What does it matter if Pol Espargaro hides the Mattighofen forest. The Austrians only remember the excellent performance of their Spaniard in a state of grace who brought home a sixth place on the dry Bugatti track. After five races, he is ninth in the championship, ahead of Lorenzo and Viñales. The latest developments on the RC16 have had their effect. And confirmed a historical technical basis which was until then contested…
Indeed, this RC16 has a particularity which was the subject of numerous comments which presaged a failure prelude to a radical change of concept. The KTM is thus the only one in the MotoGP field to benefit from a steel trellis frame and WP suspensions. Meanwhile, the others rely on aluminum and Öhlins.
However, we will remember that Ducati used a steel chassis from 2003 to 2008 on the Desmosedici. Casey Stoner thus won the first and only MotoGP world championship for the reds in the first year of the 800 cc era in 3. After the 2007 season, Filippo Preziosi, an engineer at Ducati, opted for an unusual carbon fiber monocoque chassis. In 2012, at the request of Valentino Rossi, an aluminum chassis was built.
Until Le Mans, the question of the skeleton of the RC16 was debated. But since then, there is no longer a subject: “ we better exploit KTM's strengths and enter new development areas " said I will espargaro. “ We know now that we can fight with the best when we have a good weekend like Le Mans. We still need to improve a few points. If we can do that, we can fight for the podium, even at other circuits. At the same time, we must remain grounded. Now Mugello is coming. We will try to do as well as in France ».
Public chat speedweek, the teammate of Johann zarco precise : " it's fantastic to prove how well this steel frame and WP suspension works. I'm happy because we had to face criticism and we responded to it. Many “experts” prophesied that this brave concept would never work. But now we have proof: It works! ».
