RideFast July 2020 2

“YOU ALWAYS LIKE TO SEE
DEVELOPMENT GOING
FORWARDS QUICKLY AND
PERHAPS EVEN FASTER
BUT ON THE OTHER
HAND YOU HAVE TO BE
CAREFUL THAT IT STAYS
MANAGEABLE.”
Sebastian Risse – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
MotoGP Technical Co-ordinator.
KTM have moved fast with the RC16. They have
revised engine concepts and have evolved their steel
frame ideology. They have the capacity to move
quickly. One of the best anecdotes involves the test
team using a brand-new engine at Le Mans in 2017
for a Michelin tyre test. Espargaró then loaded the
improved powerplant onto a private plane to travel to
Jerez for another shakedown. It was then used at the
Le Mans round of the series a few days later.
“You always like to see development going forwards
quickly and perhaps even faster but on the other
hand you have to be careful that it stays manageable,”
explains Risse. “When you develop many changes
in parallel at the same time then they all have to be
compatible with each other and that increases the
complexity a lot. Bringing a new bike for a new season
means a lot of decisions and a lot of test items that
have to fit together. We are on the border of it being
manageable. It means you cannot do more and more
because it just won’t work.”
Initially KTM had to get their bearings with the RC16
and assess its merits and their ideas against the rest
of the grid. “This project is still so young that you
make discoveries all the time and in many areas,” he
claims. “Of course, electronics is quite a complex one
and where the complexity is happening on the track,
whereas with others the complexity is happening at
home in developing a new chassis, part or engine. You
come to the track, try it, analyze. It’s either better or
worse and then you make a decision. The complexity
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