The complete bike will not be ready for another six months, when former MotoGP rider Alex Hofmann will perform the prototype’s first roll-out tests. This was confirmed by Mike Leitner – until last year the long-serving crew chief to Dani Pedrosa – who was in The Netherlands as KTM’s representative at the important MSMA meeting on the eve of the race. Leitner, himself a former GP racer, could give few details: the project was still at an early stage, and next year will be devoted to private testing prior to the full-time return in 2017.
The Austrian marque has achieved serial success in 125cc and Moto3; however, an entry into MotoGP in 2005 with a 990cc V4 engine supplied to Team Roberts proved short-lived, with KTM pulling out before the end of the season.
This article appears in AMCN Vol 65 No 01
