Pol Espargaró is making his second wildcard appearance of the MotoGP season at the Austrian GP. This Friday, he was at the Red Bull Ring with a KTM RC16 featuring some updates, such as a radical aerodynamic element in the swingarm area and a revamped exhaust system.
The #44 highlighted that this wildcard entry had a purpose following positive feelings from the tests: ‘It feels very, very good. Actually we are here because we felt on testing that we were performing good enough to fight against the top guys here in MotoGP. That’s why we are racing here; everytime we want to race, we race because there is a purpose, and we felt that on the test we were very, very quick riding – pace and time attack. And we think this bike has a lot of potential, so we wanted to put it in the same line than the other ones, because everything changes on a race weekend, to see the real performance’.
Regarding where this version of the RC16 is better, Espargaró explained: ‘There are a lot of areas that KTM is working on. The guys sometimes are complaining about stopping areas, they are struggling, some areas on traction. Not in top speed, it was not something that we were looking for – but especially in stopping it’s something the guys are really focused. And for sure traction; everytime you traction a little bit earlier and faster, and better, the acceleration and the lap time are quicker’.
The new aerodynamic structure in the swingarm area has caught attention, but its exact purpose is not entirely clear. The Spaniard also did not reveal much: ‘It affects a lot the rear wheel in some areas’.