MotoGP – Hervé Poncharal says KTM will have four factory bikes

Bruno Gomes

November 26, 2018

Hervé Poncharal and his Tech3 team have made a dramatic change for the 2019 MotoGP season, has opted to switch from the satellite Yamaha’s to become a privileged partner to KTM Factory Racing on the MotoGP project that the Austrian manufacturer has put into place recently.

Hervé Poncharal his Tech3 outfit is listed as a satellite team, much in the same way they’ve been credited in the last 20 seasons since joining Yamaha, but this time around, the French team will have the added benefit of receiving two RC16 prototypes that will have the same factory specs like the factory machines used by the Red Bull KTM team.

This was already known, but after the somewhat disappointing results from the Valencia test, where Hafizh Syahrin and Miguel Oliveira ended in the bottom of the timesheets while testing the KTM bike for the very first time, Hervé Poncharal decided to speak about the future and assured the Tech3 team will get exactly the same spec RC16 as the factory KTM team

“Just as it was planned by KTM, the four bikes that will be on track will be the same model. So next season we’ll see four KTM bikes in the same 2019 configuration. It doesn’t matter if we’re the satellite or the factory team. All the machines will be developed simultaneously”, said Hafizh Syahrin boss.

KTM’s decision to fabricate four factory spec RC16 makes the Austrian manufacturer the only one to do that. Yamaha only delivers factory prototypes to Movistar Yamaha team, while Honda and Ducati deliver three factory spec prototypes, split between Repsol Honda and LCR Honda, and the Ducati Factory and Pramac Ducati. This way, and even if the effort is bigger in terms of fabricating the necessary parts, KTM is making sure they have more riders using their factory bikes, and this will surely bring faster results, something that the Austrian brand expects after the fantastic third place achieved by Pol Espargaró at the season finale in Valencia.