De Diana Tamantini / Corsedimoto.com
For this new season, the MotoGP teams (with the exception of KTM) have requested wildcards. Here's how many there will be and who will be competing.
During the season, MotoGP premier class teams always request additional participation for their test riders, in order to facilitate their work in developing the bikes. This year again, the teams will not be left out, with test drivers who will be in action one to five times this season. The only one that hasn't applied is KTM. Let's look at the situation in detail.
Ducati, as has been the case for years, will once again line up Michele Pirro this year, who will have the chance to participate in three Grands Prix. “Michele will be on track at Mugello, Misano and Valencia” , confirms sports director Davide Tardozzi. There are two wild cards on the agenda at Honda. “We are very satisfied with the work of Stefan bradl and we are thinking of at least two Grands Prix”, said Alberto Puig, Team Manager. However, he did not want to reveal which races.
For Yamaha, the idea is to field one of the test riders once this season. Team principal Massimo Meregalli spoke about it: “We expect a wildcard of
Katsuyuki Nakasuga at Motegi. This has not yet been officially established, but we are considering it”. Three races are scheduled for the Suzuki test rider.
“We requested three wildcards for Sylvain Guintoli, who has been confirmed as our test driver », said team manager Davide Brivio.
“The races will be in Barcelona, Brno and Motegi, we’ll see.”
There are five wildcards in the Aprilia team. Technical director Romano Albesiano confirms: “The first wildcard for
Bradley Smith will be in Qatar. We then asked to participate in the Grands Prix of Barcelona, Brno, Aragon and Valencia. We are still waiting for official confirmation, but these are our plans.”
As said previously, no wildcard for the KTM house.
“With the satellite team, we have four motorcycles on the track” , explains Mike Leitner, team director.
“The testing schedule with Dani [Pedrosa] and Mika [Kallio] is very busy. In the past we used wildcards because we only had two bikes in action, but this year we are not thinking about it.
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