The clock is ticking louder towards the launch of 2025 MotoGP and both the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Red Bull KTM Tech3 teams completed three intense days of testing with KTM RC16 machinery at the Sepang International Circuit. After hundreds of laps and plenty of evaluation and assessment, it was Pedro Acosta who managed the fastest lap-time in 6th place.
Sepang, home of the Malaysian Grand Prix in what will be a long 22-race campaign, was again the traditional stage for the first laps and new technical developments for a fresh MotoGP season. KTM brought their work and ideas from the short winter break to the long and demanding layout close to Kuala Lumpur international airport. The test team of Dani Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro were active during the Shakedown days and then the track cleared for the full MotoGP grid and Pedro Acosta, Brad Binder, Enea Bastianini and Maverick Viñales were able to cast their judgement.
By the end of proceedings, Acosta’s best lap meant he was less than 0.7 from P1 and was followed by Binder (P13), Viñales (P16) and Bastianini (P18) as the factory completed their R&D tasks. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Red Bull KTM Tech3 will now take part in the first official MotoGP season launch presentation in Bangkok on Sunday (9 February) and then make the relatively short trip to the Buriram International Circuit for the final two-day test on 12-13 February.
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, 6th: “Quite happy with everything that we tried and we have many conclusions. We also have quite a few questions for the Buriram test. We still had a little bit more speed in the pocket here, but we now need to be ready for more in Thailand. We have space to improve, and we need to re-try things to be ready for the races.”
Maverick Viñales, Red Bull KTM Tech3, 16th: “I’m happy. Positive days. I needed two more I think! I started to be well set-up towards the end of the final day. When you jump on a new bike you need work and the first job was to understand the bike, which we did quite well. I needed to understand how to stop it; this was not an issue at the Barcelona test but it was here, and by the end it started to come better. Onto Thailand which is a different track but the conditions will be similar and we’ll continue our progress. Overall, I feel the really strong points of the bike and on some others I need to adapt.”
Enea Bastianini, Red Bull KTM Tech3, 18th: “Some small progress these days. We tried different things but my overall sensation was similar and I still need to find the strong area of this bike. We have time. We were very good in the first and last sectors in Sepang and I like the braking but we’re losing speed in the faster corners. We’ll use Thailand to be focused for the first race.”
Sebastian Risse, KTM Technical Director MotoGP: “We had one big test program between the private sessions and the official three days here in Sepang and we shared the work among the six riders. We focused on the basic start spec for the season to understand the fundamentals, then the details to gain confidence for the latest configurations. I think we have learned a lot, probably more than we have done for quite a long time, and we have found a couple of improvements. There were many actually but we still need to put them together and logistically time is quite tight to be ready for the first race. Everybody is full-gas but we are confident we made a step and then we’ll see how it relates to how everybody else is doing in Thailand. With Brad we worked with a different engine and chassis configurations and aspects of aero and electronics. With Pedro he had done the engine part on other occasions, so the work was more about chassis and suspension and aero. With the new riders they needed and appreciated some track time but it was a tough schedule for them also. They jumped into the game well and thanks to the experience they had in Barcelona test we had all winter to think about the aspects they wanted to work on. We were ready to make a move. We wanted them to test all the chassis configurations we had, which is more than we usually bring over a winter, and we could combine some different aspect on the matrix. We could see a common line and we have knowledge of where to go for the season with all four of them. We are very curious to see where this leads.”
Sepang official test final times
1. Alex Marquez (ESP) Ducati 1:56.493
2. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA) Ducati +0.007
3. Fabio Quartararo (FRA) Yamaha +0.231
6. Pedro Acosta (ESP) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +0.682
13. Brad Binder (RSA) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +1.121
16. Maverick Viñales (ESP) Red Bull KTM Tech3 +1.372
18. Enea Bastianini (ITA) Red Bull KTM Tech3 +1.518
