Dani Pedrosa, who recently turned 33 and announced his retirement from MotoGP at the Grand Prix of Germany in July, will take his first steps as a test and development rider to support the Red Bull KTM project for the next two years.
Pit Beirer (Motorsports Director KTM Group): “To have a rider of Dani’s skill and experience as part of our MotoGP project is another strong sign that we are moving in the right direction and we are still pushing as hard as we can. We have seen how competitive MotoGP is this year and how fractions of a second can sometimes hide real progress and valuable lessons. We hope – and we are very excited – that Dani’s input alongside Mika Kallio and feeding into the two teams we’ll have on the grid next year will really help to close the gap even further. I think we can feel very optimistic about our possibilities for the upcoming seasons. I’d like to thank the whole crew at the factory, all the strong effort at the races and for all those testing miles as we come close to the end of our second year. Also to Dani: it is great that he believes and trusts in us and what we are doing.”
Mike Leitner (Team Manager MotoGP): “I’m super-happy that we could reach this agreement with Dani. Thanks to all his years and success in MotoGP I believe he will help our project in a big way and in developing the bike. Dani is a three time world champion and three time runner-up in this category and I know him well from the time working together. He is still very competitive and this can only benefit our MotoGP effort.”
The Spaniard boasts over 30 MotoGP wins (more than 50 in all classes), 3 world titles and has more than 110 MotoGP podium appearances. His presence and insight will bring an essential added benefit to the work done by Mika Kallio, who has been part of the MotoGP programme since the very beginning.
Pedrosa’s influence will be keenly felt as the factory will have four KTM RC16s on the grid for 2019 in the hands of Pol Espargaro and Johann Zarco in the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team and then Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin for the Tech 3 squad.