KTM has already failed to live up to expectations in 2021, but the situation this season is even worse. While Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder suffer with an inconsistent RC16, the Tech3 rookie duo struggles to adapt to MotoGP. That is why, with nine rounds remaining, the Austrian team must find the strength to finish differently from the difficulties they started with
Uncertain. Perhaps, is the best word to define KTM in 2022, after 11 rounds of MotoGP. The team has already started the season with a flea behind its ear regarding expectations. And indeed, it has been a tortuous road so far, which the four riders at the helm of the RC16 are having to go through.
In 2021, the team from Mattighofen was third in the World Constructors' Championship at this point in the championship, with 152 points. Now it has 121, a hard-earned victory, won by Miguel Oliveira in Indonesia, and only two podiums.
Already last year, the team got tangled up with its own legs and lost strength, after a 2020 that seemed promising. The beginning of the season was difficult, without much power on the straights and unbalance in the corners. When it did react, starting at Mugello, it achieved three podiums in a row with Miguel Oliveira, including a resounding victory in Barcelona.
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There was still time for a heroic win by Brad Binder at the Austrian GP, when the South African opted to go on track with slicks when rain fell in the closing laps. The gamble paid off, and an unlikely victory landed in KTM's lap. A stroke of luck in a year of so many bad luck.
Misfortunes that showed up in the final stretch of the championship. Oliveira got injured at the Red Bull Ring and scored a meager nine points in nine races. Binder, on the other hand, was still consistent and finished the championship in sixth place. For the expectation created, he was not good enough.
For 2022, the goal was to learn from the bad moments. But they lasted. Binder is the best placed in sixth place, even though he does not perform consistently. Oliveira is 10th and has the same difficulty as his teammate. The Portuguese rider is almost certain to leave the team, since Jack Miller signed with KTM for 2023 - an understandable but somewhat questionable move by the Australian.
In Tech3, the situation is even more complicated. The pair are rookies: Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez, 23rd and 24th in the World Championship. The latter has been involved in some intrigues with his own team. KTM did not hide its dissatisfaction by saying it "regretted for having forced" the Spaniard to defend the Austrian brand. (opens in a new tab)" rel="noreferrer noopener" class="ek-link">KTM has made no secret of its dissatisfaction, saying it "regrets for having forced" the Spaniard to defend the Austrian brand.
The premier class is on vacation, but KTM must be going through a moment of acknowledging its mistakes in order not to be so down in the remaining nine races. And at the moment when youth shows little, experience must come in. Oliveira has plenty, and Binder seems to have built up a good background. They will be important to point out possible solutions.
Maybe the climate is not the best, it is true, but the goal is probably the same: to find an easier - and much less tortuous - path to the final stretch of 2022.