With the 2020 MotoGP racing season almost
upon us, with the first race of the year taking place at Losail, Qatar on March
8, Austrian motorcycle maker KTM has unveiled its KTM GP16 racing machine. Also
shown alongside the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team were the bikes being
campaigned by the satellite team Red Bull KTM Tech3.
The racing livery for the factory team
looks much the same as the previous year but the Tech3 team has a colour scheme
very different from last season. In the factory team, Brad Binder, age 24 of
South Africa, and Spaniard Pol Espargaro, age 28, will be leading the charge
for KTM.
Binder comes to Red Bull KTM for his first
season in MotoGP having finished second in the Moto2 World Championship in 2019
with Tech3 while Espargaro now moves into his fourth season with KTM. The KTM
factory team had a somewhat controversial season last year, with rider Johann
Zarco leaving the team mid-season, citing difficulties in getting the KTM GP16
to perform.
Meanwhile, in the Tech3 satellite team
managed by Herve Poncheral, the two KTM GP16 seats are filled by Portuguese
rider Miguel Oliveira, age 25 and Spaniard Iker Lecuona, age 20. Oliveira’s
career highlight was coming in second in the Moto2 championship in 2018 with
Finnish team Red Bull Ajo Moto2.
As for Lecuona, he made his Moto2 debut in
2016 with the CarXpert Interwetten team riding a Kalex before moving to the
Swiss Innovative Investors team on a KTM. He then did the 2019 Moto2 season
with American Racing KTM before stepping up to KTM’s satellite team. Four years
in development, the KTM RC16 has a V-four, 1,000 cc mill that produces over 265
hp and revs up to 18,500 rpm. Weighing 157 kg, the RC16 is capable of speeds in
excess of 340 km/h.
