Pol Espargaro can be defined as the surprise of the Austrian Grand Prix: arriving at the Red Bull Ring as a wild card, the KTM tester brought a “laboratory” KTM to the track, which on Friday’s free practice seemed very different from those used by the regulars. The new bike has excellent potential, as stated by the Granollers rider, who also demonstrated his impressions with facts. Pol was in fact fighting for the top 10 both in the Sprint and in the race.
Despite having lost the habit of battling every Sunday since he stopped racing full-time last year, Espargaro rode in the midfield, giving his more “trained” opponents a hard time and providing further proof of the potential of the KTM. There is a “but” in all this: the Mattighofen manufacturer’s tester acknowledged that more was expected from the RC16s in his home race, where Ducati dominated excessively.
“I expected to go faster because in the tests we went faster,” Polyccio began at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix. “But obviously on test days there are no other riders around, there is no tension, the track is not even rubberized with Pirelli after the Moto2 raced… In the race everything becomes more complicated and we were slower than expected. But every piece of information is good for growing, we had some things in our favor compared to the other factory riders, so we have to take the positive. On Saturday I made the top 10 and on Sunday I played it out with Alex (Marquez, ed.) until the last lap”.
Pol Espargaro, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Tenth in the Sprint and eleventh on Sunday is the final balance of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring, where Pol Espargaro tested the important innovations on the RC16. However, the “laboratory” bike used by the Catalan may not necessarily be the one we will see next year: “We don’t know if this will be the prototype for next year, it’s one of the options we have. At Mugello we used one and in Austria another, maybe it will be a mix of both. We tried to gather as much information as possible, it’s like a puzzle that slowly comes together”.
Even though Espargaro expected something more from the Austrian Grand Prix, KTM proved to be the second strongest force in the field after Ducati. The Desmosedici’s dominance was overwhelming and it left the first KTM at the finish line by a long way (Brad Binder finished in fifth place, 18 seconds behind), but the RC16 was the only bike to interrupt the hegemony, as Polyccio points out.
“The first non-Ducati was a KTM. A long way off, but we are not the only ones who have suffered compared to the Ducatis. For example, when we are not fighting with the Desmosedicis, there is Aprilia fighting and I think Aleix finished four seconds ahead of me in the race. In Austria we all suffered, and those who struggled the least compared to the Ducatis were us with the KTM. We arrived with a lot of desire and we thought we would do better, but it is very difficult to fight with the Ducatis at the moment,” acknowledged Espargaro.
Pol Espargaro, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
However, the KTM tester is convinced that Ducati’s ruthless hegemony will not last much longer. From 2025, it will have six bikes instead of the eight it has now and will lose several talented riders: “At the moment they are much superior, I think it is the result of many years of work, of having a lot of information that other brands have not had. But it is normal, they have had eight bikes on the track for many years when the others had two or, in the best of cases, four”.
“Having 50% less bikes on the track is madness. But little by little this trend will reverse, starting next year, when they will lose a team and several very fast riders. We are working very hard to catch up with Ducati and I am convinced that next year will be the beginning of the end of their domination”, declared Pol Espargaro, who believes the end of the hegemony of the Reds has almost arrived.
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