A serious problem
Paraphrasing the famous phrase from the Apollo 13 astronauts, one could say “Mattighofen, we have a problem“. In fact, it had already been understood for some time that the Austrian RC16s had some big trouble under the fairing this year: there had been too many and too frequent episodes where one of the black-orange bikes had stopped on track due to technical problems almost always related to the engine. Now, however, after months of speculation and conjecture, confirmation has come directly from the Austrian factory through Pit Beirer, KTM’s motorsport director.
Read more Quartararo 7th in Germany with chills: “I risked falling and had contact with Martin”
Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP during the Sachsenring weekend, Beirer could not deny the evidence: “The situation is not easy, there is something wrong inside our engines. We know that some engines still have this risk, we have taken others to avoid it. There is a problem and we have to solve it, there are engines we cannot use also for safety reasons. We have to use the summer break for this“.
The helping hand of Aprilia
The former German rider then expressed a public thanks to Aprilia: “I want to thank Fabiano Sterlacchini and Massimo Rivola from Aprilia who are helping us”. But what do these words mean? It concerns the MotoGP regulations: like Ducati, Aprilia and from this year also Honda, KTM has sealed engines until the end of the season since it is part of the top three tiers in the concessions ranking. Only Yamaha has freedom of development and intervention from this point of view.
Read more Marini and the eighth place at Sachsenring that confirms his presence in the points zone
However, this means that KTM, to try to solve this problem that plagues its engines, would have to intervene on them, violating the regulations. The only solution is for a unanimous green light from all the other manufacturers to allow the Austrians to discover what the problem is and try to solve it. Aprilia has given the ok to break the seals; now however, approval will also be needed from Ducati, Honda and Yamaha. An ok that is not guaranteed.
