GasGas, the iconic Spanish motorcycle brand, bought by the Pierer Mobility Group and KTM, is to enter MotoGP with the Tech3 team.
From 2023, Tech3 will become the GasGas Factory Racing Team, with Pol Espargaro confirmed as one of their riders. The team will compete with factory-backed KTM RC16s branded under the GasGas name.
Any excuse to see some high-resolution photos of the KTM RC16 in its Tech3 livery – amiright???
The start of the 2022 MotoGP Championship season is rapidly approaching us, which means that the various grand prix teams are launching their racing efforts for the year.
My colleague David Emmett called the team launches glorified dog and pony shows, and that is largely because the bikes we see aren’t really the 2022-spec machines, and most of what is said at these events are platitudes written for sponsors.
I will retort though, that high-res images of some of the finest motorcycles on the planet never gets old, and the satellite Tech3 livery on the KTM RC16 is certainly a stunning combination that adds to the motolust.
The MotoGP team unveilings continue, with now KTM showing its factory and satellite colors.
The livery on the Red Bull KTM Racing machines looks fairly unchanged from the previous season, but the new livery for Tech3’s KTM RC16 looks downright stunning in its low-key orange and black paint scheme.
Proof that less is more, the effect on the Tech3 KTM machines is palpable, and we are a big fan of the changes made to the fairing’s colors.
Episode 40 of the Brap Talk podcast is now out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and this one comes to us deep, deep within the Brap Talk vault of lost podcast episodes.
Recorded alllllll the way back on a trouble August afternoon, the show isn’t exactly talking about the latest and greatest news, but we thought it would be fun to listen to Jensen and Shahin prattle on, knowing full well the outcomes of some of their predictions and thoughts.
For sale: KTM RC16 MotoGP race bike, circa 2019. Single-owner, always garaged, in like-new condition. All service and maintenance done by factory-trained technicians. Never wheelied. Two bikes available: €288,000 each. Willing to trade for Honda RC213V or similar.
Though the Craigslist ad writes itself, KTM has taken the more tactful approach of offering two of its MotoGP race bikes from last season for purchase, and while the sticker price packs quite the shock, the Austrian brand is offering a notably exclusive opportunity.
Another day, and another factory MotoGP team debut. This week’s entry is actually a two-fer from the KTM camp, as we see in their race livery both the factory-back Red Bull KTM team debut (Pol Espargaro & Johann Zarco), as well as the factory-supported KTM Tech3 squad (Hafizh Syahrin & Miguel Oliveira).
KTM will be looking to make big steps this year in the MotoGP Championship, as the team stalled on its progress last year. This is part of the reason for a two-pronged approach in the paddock, and for the Tech3 outfit getting substantial support and involvement in the development of the KTM RC16 race bike.
When the KTM RC16 project for MotoGP was first announced, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer said that one day a customer version of the race bike would eventually be available for consumption. Today is not that day…but it’s close.
This is because KTM is making available two former MotoGP race bikes for private purchase – effectively ruining your holiday wish list. They bikes are not cheap however, and you will need to have at least €250,000 in your bank account to buy one.
The testing season is nearly done. The MotoGP grid assembles in Qatar for three final days of testing, in preparation for the season ahead. Much has already been done, but there is still a lot of work to get through.
Every factory, every team, every rider has things they want to try, in the hope of improving their chances in 2017. In most cases, those are just minor details, the nuances and finesses that will give hundredths of a second, not tenths. But not always.
There are always a couple of last-minute gambles to take, big ticket items that need one last decision. At Qatar this year, it is Honda’s turn to make a big decision, on which spec of engine to use for the season.
They tested one spec at Valencia, then another one at Sepang and Phillip Island, and at a one-day private test at Jerez.
It looks like they have made their decision, to go with the revised big bang engine tested for the first time at Sepang. But the cool air and hard acceleration of Qatar will be the deciding factor.
To double check, they will be bringing an extra engine to give to Jack Miller, the Marc VDS Honda rider, who has so far only used the Valencia engine.
If the Repsol riders, LCR’s Cal Crutchlow, and Jack Miller all agree, then HRC will pull the trigger on their latest engine, and race with it in 2017.
KTM is the new kid on the block, for the 2017 MotoGP season – and it is clear from the test times at Phillip Island that the Austrian brand has some work left to do on its V4-powered race bike.
The 2017 KTM RC16 is notably slower than its competitors, though shows a great deal of promise – especially as just a newcomer to the series.
KTM’s riders, Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro, will be looking to tame KTM’s monstrously powerful engine into something that can put the power to the tarmac, and they will also be looking to refine the steel-tube chassis into a proper scalpel on two wheels.
In other words, the 2017 season will be a development season.
Though a rookie season it will be, KTM’s partnership with Red Bull means that the squad is no stranger when it comes to marketing and presentation.
So we should not be surprised that with the team’s official livery unveiling today, that we also get a bevy of artsy high-quality (and high-resolution) photos of the team and the RC16.
Of course, no pixel was spared to bring you these gorgeous photos. We hope your bandwidth is up to the task.
On a normal day, the fastest rider at the end of a day of testing is paraded proudly in front of the press, and given his chance to explain what a good job the team and manufacturer was doing, how they were not really pushing for a lap time, and feign a certain modesty while privately gloating at how they crushed their rivals.
But this was not a normal day. The fastest man in Sepang on Monday slipped out of the circuit in virtual anonymity. After all, he is merely a test rider, and test riders don’t usually talk to the media. We journalists, snobs that we are, don’t waste our precious time on test riders.
In this case, however, it was not the media not wanting to talk to the test rider, it was the test rider not wanting to speak to the media.
One of the reasons Casey Stoner retired from racing was because he was sick of the media circus, of spending his life living out of a suitcase and answering stupid and prying questions from idiots like me.
But he still loves challenging himself on a MotoGP bike, and trying to see just how fast he can go. And Ducati are happy to pay him handsomely for the privilege. After Monday, who can blame them?
We knew from the outset of KTM’s MotoGP project with the RC16 race bike that the “Ready to Race” brand would also release the KTM RC16 as a track-only model for customers, which would cost six-figures in European currency.
Talking to Germany’s Speedweek publication, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer has tipped some more information on the “consumer version” of the KTM RC16 race bike.
Good news too, as Pierer says that KTM hopes to make at least 100 units of the machine for consumers, and that KTM wants to keep the customer RC16 as close to the MotoGP bike as possible.