Brad Binder and his Red Bull KTM team will have to overcome “unexpected issues” over the next two weeks if they are to make an immediate impact in the 2023 MotoGP season, which starts in a fortnight.
Ducati will go into the opening Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Circuit on March 26 as the early favourites, with Binder & Co hoping they will be able to unlock the beast within their RB16 by then.
Pre-season testing for the elite category concluded this past weekend at the same circuit, with the South African finishing ninth on the timesheet – 0.512 seconds behind early pacesetter and defending world champion Francesco Bagnaia of Italy on his Ducati.
Indeed, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer enjoyed a terrific second day of testing, with seven of their bikes finishing in the top 10. Binder and KTM, Fabio Quartararo on a Yamaha in third, and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in 10th, filled in the gaps.
“We made a good step forward (on Sunday),” 27-year-old Binder said via a statement of the testing weekend.
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“We had to rethink things (on Saturday) night because I wasn’t that happy with what we were doing. The team did a great job to make me more comfortable on the bike and I could push a bit harder.
“We are closer to where we need to be. The time attack went better than I expected.
“There is definitely a step we can still make before the race, but I think we are more or less ready to go into the season.”
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Meanwhile, Binder’s new teammate, Australian Jack Miller, finished the weekend 17th and close to a second behind Bagnaia. It was only Miller’s third outing on his KTM as he continues to get to grips with his new ride.
Nevertheless, the team will have a busy few days ahead of them as they analyse the data to find the setup and solutions to make them a consistent threat for podium positions during the 21-race calendar, according to team manager Francesco Guidotti.
“This test was the first time we tried the 2023 spec of the bike and we had some unexpected issues but also some progress,” Guidotti said.
“We perhaps don’t have enough time now to fix everything, but we hope to give the riders a better package asap.
Good news!
— Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (@KTM_Racing) March 13, 2023
Only 1️⃣ week to wait until we’ll have more of this. 🔥#KTM #ReadyToRace pic.twitter.com/MRf7cXYp24
“Jack is gaining confidence and speed run-by-run and Brad was a bit surprised by this test, but turned it around. We know where we need to improve and thanks to the whole team for another big effort.”
It was a sentiment shared by Sebastian Risse, the team’s technical manager.
“I would say we had a difficult start to the test and had to work through a lot on the first day,” said Risse.
“The main topic for some riders was rear grip, and looking at the lap times overall, it was clear that the track (on Sunday) was in better shape and this helped us but we also improved our cause. We made a step and now we must must see how much we can transfer this on the race weekend.
“I think we can be happy with the evolution we made these two days and we have the baseline. Now that we have had this test everybody should be up to pace right away at the GP and I think there is still some room to work there.”
@FreemanZAR