Ducati hunters
KTM boss Pit Beirer discusses 2023, Acosta and what 2024 holds for the factory’s MotoGP project
KTM cemented themselves as Ducati’s closest challengers last season with second in the constructor’s championship and fourth in the overall standings with Brad Binder.
Never ones to sit still, the Austrians are keen to make another step this season and take the fight to Ducati on a more regular basis.
MCN caught up with KTM Motorsport Director Pit Beirer to discuss all things MotoGP.
How do you reflect on 2023 and can you close the gap to Ducati in 2024?
“It’s our best season yet, but we’re not totally happy because we haven’t won on a Sunday. We need to be more consistent, but the competition is tough.
“With Ducati, you have eight strong riders, and they did an amazing job. Even if you get closer, you still always have these eight bikes. If a factory has two bikes ahead of you, you catch them and you can still fight for the podium, but with Ducati it’s quite difficult.
“If we compare the gap to the front for every race weekend, every single lap, we get closer and closer, but there’s still a gap so we need to make one big step. The good thing is, if you’re there with them, you can catch eight riders in one shot.”
What direction do you need to go in?
“In the last two races we struggled a lot with grip, which was there for some of the races. It’s quite complex, so it’s not consistent – some races we are fully competitive and fighting for the win, but others seem to be quite difficult.
“I cannot say it’s one specific area, we just need to push on every segment: engine, chassis, suspension, electronics. It’s always the whole combination.
“If they’re missing 0.2 seconds today, there is no magic part to find that missing 0.2s, so you must work on everything. There are so many details so you can only make that leap if you concentrate on every area of the bike.”
Dani Pedrosa’s influence continues to show…
“He does an amazing job for us. It’s how he explains things to engineers, how he’s feeling and how he can draw a dyno graph from a new engine exactly matching how we measured it at home.
“It took a while to get the maximum from this relationship, knowing how much we can trust him in some details and also, we had to adapt the bike sometimes just for his personal needs. This was maybe not so helpful for Jack or Brad, but if it made it better for him, he could just work at a higher level.
“We found a way over the years and now we’re on the max level. He knows what we can do for him, and we appreciate what he does for us.”
How do you view Brad Binder?
“Brad gives it everything and we’ve had to learn MotoGP together. He’s still improving, but he has our full respect and heart. He has already had two chances to leave us for a better bike, because if you look back four years ago there were other bikes much stronger than KTM but he told me, ‘I want to stay until we reach the top’, and you can feel that.
“On his best days, he’s riding a MotoGP bike like a Moto2 bike, sliding into the corners, and just not respecting what you should do with these tyres in MotoGP. He’s so hard to pass, if he’s so sideways you don’t know whether to go left or right. He’s a very special rider.”
Is he one small step away from a title challenge?
“He’s the best rider and we need to step things up to make it happen.”
“We don’t know what happened because Jack made us better. When he came, we learned things which helped us to improve, and he was the strongest KTM rider heading into the season.
“It’s sad because he opened a new level for us, and now Brad can use it and Jack cannot. He did for a couple of races, but then we had a big drop during the summer. Of course, I always compare where we are, so
‘Pedro Acosta is a very special rider. 100%’
you look back and say Jack has had a really bad day, but he’s still doing faster lap times than he did in 2022 on a very strong Ducati.
“It’s just how fast this class is developing, and you need to develop as a manufacturer, but also the riders, they need to go to a new level every week and push it further. He missed the feeling for a few weeks, we couldn’t make him happy, the trust was gone, then you push a little more and you crash… it’s a downwards spiral.
“I feel we almost have him back…
We went through a big hole, but we have strong plans over the winter.”
How crucial was it to keep Pedro Acosta within the KTM family?
“Pedro is a very special rider. 100%. He has very special skills, not just with his record, but with how we work with him, how he’s reacting and how he’s developing.
“We feel that with Pedro we have a diamond in our group, and we want to treat him really well and succeed together. He will get enough time to develop, but I feel he won’t need too long - he wants to push very early.
“If you look at KTM’s history, how we worked to build this project, to find all these great people, it took a while to achieve. It took time to find the group to make the team, to have the team at home ready to build a bike on that level and now we’re almost there.
“Pedro is coming, so we have a unique chance if we can make another step or two. At the same time that Pedro is developing we can maybe create a very strong combination being both ready to race and win races.
“We are so motivated to give everything for that target but of course, it’s very tough out there. We’re all going to work hard to make it happen.”
Your application to raise the number of bikes you have on the grid was rejected. How disappointed were you with the decision?
“That was very frustrating because we had five riders under contract. Pol [Espargaro] had his health issues and then we had Pedro coming in, so we had no chance to keep all of them. That we didn’t get that extra space was very painful because we thought for the effort we’re making for the championship, we deserve some support for an extra space for a transition year.
“Now the market is opening up, contracts are up with satellite teams, so we’ll start talking to team owners to find a new partner. It’s definitely our idea to get another team onboard for 2025.
“If it’s going well with two teams and four riders, we’re happy, but we’re looking forward to creating another team.”
“The difference was instantly noticeable and such a relief.”