What KTM’s RC16 needs to run at the front of MotoGP again

KTM goes into the 2022 MotoGP world championship following two seasons of weirdly contrasting fortunes.

In 2020, following KTM’s first complete redesign of the RC16 since the bike’s debut, the Austrian factory had a breakthrough year, claiming its first victories and missing a podium place in the constructors championship by just two points.

KTM had arrived.

But not for long. The RC16 disappeared without a trace at the start of last season, until mid-season when the bike started winning again, only to disappear once again.

So, what explains the RC16’s strangely up-and-down 2021 and how are KTM engineers fixing the bike for 2022?

Many of KTM’s problems can be attributed to one factor: the RC16 works in a narrow window of opportunity, like Yamaha’s 2020 YZR-M1, so its performance is determined by the racetrack and the conditions.

“We didn’t visit so many racetracks in 2020, so maybe things looked rosier than they were in reality.”

“We need to bring a wider base to the track, a wider window, because if the temperature isn’t right, or the rider isn’t riding perfect, we miss the window,” says KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer.

“We are in a window that’s quite small, which is quite scary,” agrees Paul Trevathan, crew chief to Red Bull KTM rider Miguel Oliveira, KTM’s most successful rider, with three wins so far. “When the tyre allocation doesn’t quite fit us or the track’s a bit cooler or hotter then we’re in trouble, so we need to make the window wider to be competitive all season. The round black things are what connect you to the ground and if you’re not making them work you’re in the shit. This is what we really need to understand.”

Trevathan believes that KTM’s impressive 2020 results were a bit of a mirage, for the same reason. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 championship was disputed over just nine racetracks, half the normal number, and KTM was lucky that most of them suited the RC16.

“We didn’t visit so many racetracks in 2020, so maybe things looked rosier than they were in reality.”

KTM’s results bombed at the start of 2021 due to a change in Michelin’s front-tyre allocation. Without its favourite front tyre available the RC16 really struggled – the bike had ended 2020 win a win and two further podiums but didn’t score a single podium at the first five races of 2021.

“The front tyre was a shock – we thought Holy Christ, what are we going to do to get around this?’” adds Trevathan. “The first part of the year we were trying to understand how to work around the tyre. We went out of our comfort zone with fork settings – damping, spring preloads, oil levels and so on – to take the stress out of the tyre, but that didn’t make us faster, it just allowed us to at least use the tyre.

“The tyre was an issue because we make the lap time by attacking the braking zones and flicking the bike very quickly. So when you don’t have the support from the front tyre, the tyre feels like it goes square, so then you have to take all the speed out of the bike before you can release the pressure off the tyre and turn.”

These front tyre problems had a negative effect on overall development, causing KTM to lose its way, says RC16 project leader Sebastian Risse.

“I think this story with the front tyre brought us into a situation where we started to doubt things,” says Risse, who previously ran KTM’s RC8 IDM superbike and Moto3 projects. “You have to reinvent yourself a bit, so the results dipped down, then you start getting some better results again, the bike goes up step by step and you move forward again.”

KTM was back with a bang when Oliveira scored three consecutive podiums: second at Mugello, victory at Catalunya and another second at Sachsenring, where he chased Marc Márquez for the win. These results followed the arrival of a new chassis, a slightly revised version of the all-new 2020 iteration.

“It all fell together, the chassis wasn’t a massive thing, but Miguel could ride the bike slightly differently, which brought us back into that good area,” says Trevathan. “You see other manufacturers have these dips and for a while it can feel like you’re locked in a hole, but we worked with Brad’s side of the garage, sharing info and trying different things – okay, you go left and we’ll go right – which worked really, really well.”

KTM’s results bombed again when Oliveira broke his right wrist at Red Bull Ring (although Brad Binder did win the rain-hit Austrian GP at the same track).

“Miguel’s crash was the big thing that took the wind out of our sails,” reveals Trevathan. “The way the riders hang off the bikes now their wrists are never straight, so all the little movements with the throttle became a problem, so he had to ride the bike differently and then when you’re in a hole you’re chasing your tail and you start throwing parts at the bike.”

Without Oliveira leading the way, doubts once again set in.

“We’re losing time in places where we’re at full throttle because we’re not hooking up the way we should”

“Our riders always push each other, so when one of them is going well, the others want to go better, so the whole project improves,” explains Risse. “On the other hand, if the guy that maybe has the most potential at that moment isn’t riding at the top of his performance then maybe the others start to doubt things. And this can be way more extreme than how much the bike is changing.”

KTM had another issue in 2021, because it was the first season the factory didn’t have MotoGP concessions, which in previous seasons had allowed its engineers to introduce upgraded engines and do lots of testing with their full-time riders.

KTM engineers are now working hard to widen the RC16’s window of opportunity for the 2022 season.

“It’s a character thing – it’s the black magic of chassis stiffness and the tyres and all these things coming together,” says Trevathan.

KTM has been working on chassis stiffness throughout the winter, because getting the right amount of lateral and torsional flex in the right places has a huge effect on how the bike behaves in turning, cornering and accelerating.

“Drive acceleration is created mostly by how the rider picks up the bike – this creates more grip than you can make with any technology,” says Risse. “The most important thing to help the rider lift the bike is having the room to do that, which means having the bike facing in the right direction, which means getting the bike stopped and turned to prepare the exit.

“We worked on geometry and stiffness rates, plus the riders adapted a lot. They are all very talented and if you give them time they will find ways to manage a problem from their side.”

There is one other area of performance that KTM knows it needs to improve to consistently compete at the front: qualifying.

MotoGP is so close now that grid positions matter more than ever – if you’re not on the front two rows you have little chance of fighting for a podium finish.