KTM MotoGP Team Manager Francesco Guidotti has admitted that the manufacturer “missed something” during the recent Sepang pre-season test, conceding that its expectations “were maybe too high.”
The Austrian marques riders spent the bulk of the test running well outside the top ten, with GasGas rider Pol Espargaro ending up as the highest-classified and fastest RC16 rider at the conclusion of the three-day jaunt – albeit in 14th overall and nearly a second down on the pace-setting Ducati of Luca Marini.
Having been left confident over the progress it had made with its machine across the off-season following the comments from test rider Dani Pedrosa after the previous weeks shakedown test at the same venue, Guidotti admitted that KTM “missed something” in terms of overall pace relative to the competition.
“We did a massive amount of work, everybody from the riders to the mechanics put in an incredible effort and now it’s time to collect all the data and prepare the best we can for the Poritmao test,” began the Italian.
“The expectation was quite high and we missed something to be honest, so in the next weeks we have to work even harder to extract the best potential from what we tested.
“We did some very short runs, the amount of tyres available wasn’t enough to develop the bike – to set up the bike maybe – but to develop it we missed something.
“The weather also wasn’t helpful, but I’m not trying to find excuses we are working very hard and give our riders the best possible package.
“We are fairly happy, but not completely, our expectations were maybe too high so we have to work a lot in the next days.”
Guidotti says that the outfit is working to tweak the chassis of the RC16 to work better across all its pilots riding styles, though conceded that the short two day test at Portimao prior to the season-opening Portuguese Grand Prix won’t give it a lot of time to test changes.
“The aero package was pretty helpful, the engine raised some question marks but we have data and we can work on that,” added Guidotti.
“As always the package is a compromise of different things like riding style, we are trying to adjust this too to find something better but we are pretty confident and satisfied of the job we did, but less so the laptime.
“We only have two days (in Portimao) which is one less than usual, the circumstances will be different as it won’t be hot like here, but there will be more preparation for the race which will only be a few days later.”
Keyword: KTM ‘missed something’ during Sepang test