KTM lost Fabiano Sterlacchini a couple of weeks ago and Pit Beirer recalled the former head of MotoGP technology department of the team and how he started to make a few bold changes right away, and his input brought some results not long after.
‘When Fabiano joined KTM two years ago, he was brave enough to change a few things’, the CEO of Pierer Mobility began to say quoted on GPOne, when speaking about the italian.
As soon as he got into the team, he decided to make some changes, that worked well, believes Beirer: ‘We had a weak period in the spring and summer of 2022 and understood it was time for some changes in order to take progress with our top riders, [Brad] Binder and [Miguel] Oliveira. In Aragón 2022, we had already reached our first results’.
With Sterlacchini came also a greater understandings of some aspects of MotoGP: ‘For the first time, we could understand in which part of a corner on certain tracks we were losing time and started searching for solutions’.
But also the realization that the category was getting at a level never seen before: ‘By that time, the MotoGP had become more competitive than ever before. We needed to find a tenth of a second by improving aspects like chassis, engine, electronics, suspension, devices, and so on. The times when a company could improve half a second per lap by modifying one specific component were long gone’.
Sterlacchini ended up leaving the manufacturer, but Beirer assured that there is ‘an skillful engineer at home’, who will continue the work.