KTM pulls out of Jerez MotoGP test

KTM team manager Mike Leitner has confirmed that the factory has pulled out of a planned private test at Jerez.

The Austrian team had been due on track alongside some of its MotoGP rivals at the Spanish Grand Prix venue from March 18-20.

Aprilia, which is caught-up in the current lockdown in Italy, is also thought to be withdrawing while the intensions of Honda and Suzuki - the other manufacturers expected on track next week - are less clear. The ongoing MotoE test shows that the Jerez circuit remains open for testing, even if the upcoming WorldSBK round has now been postponed.

"We planned a three-day test in Jerez next week that was pretty important. However, we had to cancel it under the circumstances," Leitner told ServusTV. "It's just too risky right now. We have decided that health is clearly above everything else."

Leitner added that the ongoing MotoGP calendar changes were not a surprise under the circumstances and warned that it is still far too early to predict how the coronavirus situation will play out.

"The whole planning is going haywire. That's logical. But we are not yet in a situation - and this is the difficult part - where we can say: 'That was it and now we can reposition ourselves'. Because it looks like we are still in the middle of it. We still don't know how the journey will continue in the next few months," Leitner said.

"Personally, I am not yet very concerned about [races being added in] November. I'm much more interested in what April and May will look like… But that is simply not in our hands, or in the hands of the organisers. That will depend purely on how you deal with the other problem, the virus. You will be totally dependent on each country's decisions.

"You can't say what it will be like in six months... [but] it's not just a problem for MotoGP. The whole economy and society are suffering."