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While KTM rookie Maverick Viñales made it twice in a row into Qualifying 2, in Austin and Doha, and secured a strong 6th place on the grid at the Lusail International Circuit, his teammate, Enea Bastianini, on Hervé Poncharal's Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, continued his run of disappointing grid positions: 20th, 21st, 17th, and 20th. These were the four grid positions of last year's fourth-place finisher in the World Championship since switching from the Ducati Desmosedici to the KTM RC16. By comparison, Viñales started from positions 18, 16, 10, and 6, therefore, achieving a significant improvement.
But Enea Bastianini isn't the only KTM factory rider who isn't achieving outstanding starting positions on the KTM. Brad Binder, now in his sixth MotoGP season with KTM, has so far started from disappointing positions: 14, 11, 16, and 18. This was a tragedy for the South African rider who triumphed on the KTM in Brno in 2020 during his third MotoGP World Championship appearance, won at the Spielberg GP a year later, but then didn't win again for almost four years.
The qualifying-time gaps between Viñales and his two teammates are huge: Binder was 1.448 seconds behind Marc Márquez's best time, while "Bestia" even lost 1.679 seconds. Instead, Viñales kept the gap from Marc by just 0.560 seconds.
It's no secret that, in its quest to finally win races again - with a quartet of riders boasting a total of 71 GP victories and five World Championship titles - KTM is bringing a wide variety of equipment to the Grand Prix, but it hasn't yet found a baseline that really suits all four riders.
"After the two winter tests and the first Grand Prix, the number of technical options has already been reduced," Tech3 team principal, Hervé Poncharal, emphasized. "But all four riders have very different riding styles. So, the engineers have to listen to the opinions of all the riders because, up until the Qatar GP, Pedro Acosta was almost always the leader in KTM. Everyone watched how he rode and listened to what he said. Maverick's performance in Doha made its presence known more widely. Pedro responded very positively to Maverick's performance, and all the KTM riders carefully studied the data, the set-up, and the selection of Maverick's parts. Collaborative work can take the entire project to the next level. With each race, both teams have a clearer understanding of the needs of each rider. Manu Cazeaux and Alberto 'Pigiamino' Giribuola, Maverick's and Enea's crew chiefs, and, of course, Andres Madrid and Paul Trevathan, who are responsible for Brad and Pedro, are doing the same. The challenge now is to extract as much information as possible from these four piairs and determine the right direction for further development."
On Sunday, the astonishing top speed of Viñales' KTM was clearly demonstrated on the 1.068 km straight at the finish in the Qatar GP. According to Dorna, Brad Binder achieved the highest top speed of all participants in the race, at 361.2 km/h, in part, presumably thanks to a helpful slipstream.
Also worthy of note in the official top speed table were the four Japanese bikes from Honda and Yamaha, which all finished in poor positions: from 14 to 22.
Hervé Poncharal managed a Yamaha client team in the MotoGP World Championship from 2002 to the end of 2018 that, with Johann Zarco, even fought for the title, at times, and often overshadowed the Movistar Yamaha factory team with Rossi and Viñales. Jonas Folger also shone in 2017 on the Tech3 Yamaha in Saxony, finishing second behind series winner Marc Márquez.
Poncharal's team knows that top speed isn't always the best or safest path towards success. he realized this at Ducati, year after year, since entering the MotoGP in 2003.
After the start of the 2004 season in Welkom, Troy Bayliss had said: "We now have thrirty hp more than last year, but nobody asked for more horsepower. We have a motorcycle that seems to have been flown in from space."
Only after the power of the 990 cc V4 Ducati was gradually reduced did Ducati win again in Motegi and Sepang in 2005. In 2004, the Italian factory came away empty-handed after Loris Capirossi sensationally triumphed on the fast Catalunya track in 2003, ahead of Honda's stars, Rossi and Gibernau.
Considering that LCR Honda rider Johann Zarco finished 4th at the Lusail Circuit, despite a top-speed disadvantage of approximately 8.3 km/h, the question arises: is KTM perhaps focusing too heavily on peak performance with the RC16 and, therefore, neglecting rideability?
"No, in today's MotoGP era, you never have engines that are too powerful," Hervé Poncharal vehemently disagreed. "Marc and Pecco were unanimous in their admiration of Maverick's top speed after the race. Furthermore, the KTM is impressive, not only with its engine power. Maverick was also able to perfectly keep the pace in corners and overtook several times in braking zones. This means the KTM has an excellent power delivery and a great stability in braking zones. Furthermore, Maverick sometimes exited the corners better than Marc and Pecco, so he also had plenty of grip in lean angle. Pecco was amazed at how quickly Maverick was able to accelerate out of corners. If you want to deliver a performance like Maverick did on Sunday, you need more than just a powerful engine. Our package was capable of fighting for second place at the Qatar GP. We were only beaten by one bike and one rider. That means we have a competitive package."
But KTM lacks consistency, especially in the 2025 Sprints. Viñales and Bastianini both finished four times without points, and Binder, who finished 8th in Buriram on Saturday, only scored two World Championship points in the four Sprints.
"Ducati's strength is that it's fast on all tracks and in all conditions. It won all the Sprints and MotoGP races this year," Poncharal stated. "KTM was also fast in Texas. Unfortunately, we weren't able to translate that performance into results and points there. In Doha, we were very competitive and finished second. But the tire pressure regulations deprived us of the points. Now we have to wait and see if we can continue the positive trend of the last two Grand Prixs on tracks like Jerez, Le Mans, Silverstone, Aragón, and so on."
