KTM boss Francesco Guidotti pointed out that the Austrian brand had a complicated start to the year, but evaluated that the key to improving the season result is a better performance in classification
KTM boss Francesco Guidotti has set a clear goal for the second half of the 2022 MotoGP season: to improve qualifying performance. In the manager's view, a better starting position is the way to extract the full potential of the RC16 this year.
The team of Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder left for the vacations with the fourth place in the Constructors' World Championship, with 121 points, 125 less than the leader Ducati. In the World Riders' Championship, the South African rider is the best positioned and appears in sixth, with the Portuguese rider, owner of the only Austrian victory this year, only coming in tenth.
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Speaking to the official MotoGP website, Guidotti pointed out that KTM had some unexpected difficulties at the beginning of the year, but considered that the performance in qualifying was the weakest point. The manager pointed out that even though Binder was able to recover many positions in the races, this need to always be chasing after the loss affects the final result.
"To be honest, it was an unexpected start. We faced some problems in two or three GPs and then we stabilized our performance, but we have to improve our classification, otherwise it affects the race result too much," Guidotti said. "Binder did an incredible amount of overtaking during the races, but to know exactly where we are from a technical point of view, we need to start with the leading pack and try to extract the best of our potential," he continued.
"We saw that this was possible in some places. In others we had a very hard time. We know that we have to work on different areas of the bike. We must not forget that our project is very new, very young, so we changed a little the way we work in the garage, the working method, something that the technicians also need to get used to, so let's see what the future holds," he commented.
Asked about the change in the working environment, Francesco, who arrived from Pramac for the 2022 season, replied, "As everyone knows, we had to face many problems in the first part of the season from a technical point of view. This is more for the technicians, but I am also involved in some of these discussions. Then you have the new team line-up for next year, and for me you also have a new environment, so I also need to look around and understand some things."
"The motivation is there, the effort is there, everyone is going in the same direction, which is one of the most important things in a big group, in a big team, so that was the first part of the season. We look to the next half, after the summer break, with more confidence," he stressed.
Initially, the Mattighofen house wanted to test some ideas in Assen, but had to postpone the plans because of the weather. Still, Francesco hopes he can come back with everything from the post-holiday break.
"We have to improve in qualifying, so we are thinking about how to do that. We have some ideas, we were going to try it in Assen, but the weather didn't allow us, so we will be ready from Silverstone to be better in qualifying to see how it will be in the race," he closed.
MotoGP is now on vacation and will be back in action on August 7, with the British GP at Silverstone.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.