KTM: Red Bull aero? ‘What matters is on track’ Coach Kallio
KTM elected not to send its riders back on track after a 3:30pm downpour, in order to save their allocation of wet testing tyres, leaving the factory with 12 officially timed laps for Folger (+2.5s) split between two machines.
However, Pedrosa's bikes were not fitted with transponders and he was rumoured to have been the fastest of all.
“It was going quite well [until the rain],” Risse told Crash.net. “It’s a Shakedown test, it’s not intended to be the main performance test, so we are looking more into the things that later on have to run perfect.
“We still have some things to tune and check that all the bikes are fine, but we’re happy. It all went well. We got some stuff sorted and we have plenty more items but we will be led by the weather here.”
Among those ‘items’ will be new aerodynamic parts, designed in partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies.
“We have quite a few versions and a lot of pre-testing in the wind tunnel etc already. But in the end, what matters is what happens on the track. So we’ll see here,” Risse said.
Further rain on Monday morning has meant a slow start to day two of the Shakedown.
Coach Kallio
While former MotoGP podium finisher Folger is now helping with RC16 development work alongside Dani Pedrosa, Mika Kallio - KTM’s main test rider since the project began - is moving into more of a coaching role.
“We have the three test riders here. We will decide who we use, and when. It depends a bit on the situation,” Risse said. “But also Mika now, a big part of his role is more to help the riders by being out watching them [from the side of] the track.
“But for this, it’s also really helpful that he’s still keeping some riding experience of course. You can put yourself much better into the head of a rider if you’ve been on this beast.”
“We have started this last season,” Risse added of Kallio’s coaching work. “And we saw that it was really useful. Okay, now we have different [race] riders, but I think it’s going to be very good.”
The Finn is expected to attend a substantial number of this year’s 21-rounds.
As well as the KTM test riders, GASGAS Tech3 rookie Augusto Fernandez is also eligible for the Shakedown test while Brad Binder, Pol Espargaro and Jack Miller will complete their first laps of the year at the Official test from February 10-12.
