KTM RC16 debuts

Any time a new factory team joins the MotoGP field there’s intrigue and excitement. When that factory is KTM and it’s got the massive backing of Red Bull behind it there’s even more reason to take note. Enter the RC16.

At the weekend’s Austrian GP the new KTM RC16 made its first public appearance, with test riders Mika Kallio and Alex Hoffman on board. The bike will make a wildcard race appearance with Thomas Luthi and Mika Kallio riding at Valencia in November.

Next year the team will make its first real championship entry with current Tech 3 riders Bradley Smith and Pol Esparago both jumping ship to take factory rides with KTM. They’ll get to sample the bike at the Valencia MotoGP test straight after the final GP of the season.

The RC16 is already well-tested. It’s been running for around a year already and should make a competitive amount of power from its V4 engine at around 250bhp. During tests at the Red Bull Ring last month KTM rider Kallio was less than two seconds from the fastest Ducati of Andrea Iannone, who went to win Sunday’s race. His pace was around the same as Ducati test rider Michele Pirro on the Desmosedic. That suggests that when a current GP rider gets on the bike much of the two second deficit could be eliminated.

The engine might be similar to the layout of the current Honda and Ducati machines, but the KTM’s tubular steel chassis is something we haven’t seen in MotoGP since Ducati dropped its trellis frame at the end of 2008. The trellis was seen as a problem at the time as it was hard to make two that were exactly alike. But its replacement, the carbon-fibre monocoque, struggled to repeat the earlier design’s success. Ducati eventually conformed with an aluminium beam frame like every other MotoGP machine on the grid.

 

 

Pictures: KTM/Focus Pollution