In MotoGP as elsewhere, you should not trust appearances. Thus at KTM. The first year of the RC16 in Mattighofen particularly attracted attention with results in the top 10 which were expected as a formality for this second campaign. However, the orange army seems to be in more difficulty and, after eleven Grands Prix, has still not done better than its best result in the category, which is ninth. Furthermore, the infirmary is full of pilots who would be very useful on the track. But the brand's boss realigns the focus by taking a different look at the situation...
In an interview at crash.net, Stefan pierer puts things in their place and ensures that everything goes according to a plan that will bring its KTM brand, sooner or later, to the summits of MotoGP: “ the second season is always more complicated than the first. We have always said it and this is what we are currently experiencing. Things seem more difficult for us, but we still have double the points in the championship than last year at the same time ».
He keeps on : " At each race, we are closer to the winner than last year. For example, in Assen we were 40s behind the winner and this year we were 20s. And finishing 20 seconds behind Marc Marquez at the top of his form is not a disaster. So everything is fine, we don't panic, we chart our course. This competition is also incredibly high. A second, can bring together up to eighteen pilots! ».
« Technically, there is nothing that cannot be fixed, but the most serious problem is the injury of a pilot ". The boss then recalls the injury to his back Espargaro Pol during the off-season, the same one who will be withdrawn this weekend at Silverstone while the test driver Mika Kallio seriously injured his knee at the Sachsenring. To compensate, KTM recruited Randy De Puniet for testing and Loris Baz for Silverstone.
Stefan pierer finished : " we want to be at the top of the podium, no matter how long it takes, we will get there. As in everything we have accomplished. Our steel frame is an advantage. I assure you. We see it in Moto2. It is he who allows us to be so efficient at the end of the race and that will also be seen in MotoGP. This is our advantage ". Finally, MotoGP is also a showcase for selling motorcycles, and not just because of the results… “ We are very happy that Hervé Poncharal has a driver from Malaysia in his team. Because it is a very important market for us ».
KTM has 41 points in the constructors' championship after eleven rounds. There were 29 a year ago. Pol Espargaro, despite his withdrawal from the last two Grands Prix, is fifteenth overall with 32 points compared to a nineteenth position and 21 points in 2017. In 2019, a new official driver will arrive: Johann zarco.
