Pedro Acosta, Brad Binder, Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini, "the Four Musketeers" of the two Red Bull KTM MotoGP factory teams, want to clinch the first KTM MotoGP victory since Spielberg 2020, when Brad Binder won in the torrential rain by not stopping for rain tyres.
KTM Motorsports director Pit Beirer spoke to GPOne.com exclusively after the winter tests at Sepang and Buriram, where Pedro Acosta clinched a 6th and 4th place, while teammate Brad Binder stayed outside the Top 10 on both occasions.
Pit, did the results and gaps in the tests meet your expectations? Which riders are you happy with and where does KTM still need to catch up?
"When you prepare a MotoGP team, there are no expectations for specific lap times for Sepang. The days were barely long enough for the four racers to test and evaluate all the material we have brought with us.
We first had to do basic tests on this occasion, because there is no opportunity to do this later at the Grand Prix weekends. We know what's going on there: you have to deliver quick lap times already in the first practice session on Friday morning.
That's why you can't go chasing lap times in Sepang, you have to sort out your basic material first. We've done that.
Of course, Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder had an easier time choosing the material, because we also brought components for our newcomers Enea Bastianini and Maverick Viñales that Pedro and Brad already knew from last year, but were still unknown to the two newcomers.
For Enea and Maverick, everything was new. It was an expected outcome for us that at the end of the Sepang test, Pedro and Brad knew exactly which motorcycle they wanted to have in the pits for Buriram.
With Enea and Maverick, however, we were almost two days behind on testing because they weren't able to try out all the material in Malaysia."
This meant that Acosta and Binder had a better base on day 1 in Thailand, where the riders only had two days of testing?
"Yes, Pedro and Brad were able to work on the set-up on the first day in Buriram, while the other two riders were still comparing a lot of hardware. Pedro was able to go on a 'time attack' on the second day in Buriram.
That was a 'bench mark' for us because he improved the best KTM qualifying time from the previous year by four tenths of a second. So we were able to see that we had made a step forward with the bike and with Pedro.
Now my conclusion is: Yes, I'm satisfied. Because we achieved exactly what we wanted with Pedro and Brad. It was obvious that getting used to the new material was more difficult for Maverick and Enea.
But on the final day, Maverick had his package together and was able to achieve a top time. Enea improved by three places compared to Malaysia. But it's no secret that Enea found the brand change more difficult than Maverick.
He needs to get used to our bike even more. Because there are obvious things you have to change in your riding style in order to be fast with the KTM. We did a lot of technical work during the tests and achieved pretty decent lap times."
Bastianini has been riding a Ducati for four years, Viñales came to MotoGP in 2015 and has already won on three different brands. That's probably why the switch was easier for him.
"Yes, it's a brutally difficult task for the riders because they don't really have much time to adapt to a new brand. We had so much material on the track, and the riders had to make decisions pretty quickly about which material they want for the future.
But they only had six days of testing on three different tracks, and then were expected to perform on top World Championship level again. Nowadays the riders don't have the opportunity to get used to the new machine for a few days before they have to perform, as is perhaps normal in other sports.
That's not possible in MotoGP because track time is extremely limited and extremely expensive. But it's all OK. We have four riders who came home from the tests very satisfied. After the financial difficulties we had in the company, they were all surprised at how well positioned and prepared our two MotoGP teams are.
Now we're going to race, then we'll know the true balance of power and be able to better judge how meaningful the lap times from the tests were."
To be continued...
