The pressure was on the factory KTM MotoGP organisation after a largely average sophomore campaign in 2018, where they failed to build on the solid progress they seemed to make in the back end of ’17 – although Pol Espargaro’s maiden podium for him and the team at the season finale last year was a boost.
The Austrian manufacturer needed to make the next step towards the premier class pace-setters this year though, and in the first few races it seemed they hadn’t.
Espargaro managed a solid eighth in the US grand prix, but KTM’s new star signing Johann Zarco was struggling to adapt to life on the RC16-not reaching the top ten until the Catalan GP.
However, a new carbon fibre swing arm-introduced for the French GP – looked to be a significant step forward, Espargaro immediately displaying its improvement by racing to a superb sixth – just 5.9 seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez.
Espargaro’s strong form continued over the next few races, with ninth at Mugello being followed up by an impressive seventh place result at the Catalan contest.
Progress began to slow slightly around mid-season as the likes of Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki all made ground with their own packages-but Espargaro continued to rack up the points.
The same couldn’t be said for Zarco though, who had failed to find a solution that would allow him to compete with his team-mate on a regular basis amid continued criticism from his superiors, such as team manager Mike Leitner.
Things looked to be on the up for Zarco following his strong Catalan showing, shining at a wet Brno to bag KTM’s highest ever starting position in third – with Espargaro just behind in fifth – although rear-grip struggles saw the pair slip back in the race – but these performances turned out to be red herrings.
Things then came to a head following KTM’s home race at the Red Bull Ring, when the Frenchman requested the second year of his two year deal to be nullified.
KTM granted Zarco’s wish, but made it clear they would see out the rest of the season together-until they didn’t.
Zarco was dropped ahead of the 14th round of the championship at Aragon, with “low morale” issued by Leitner as the key motivator for his sacking, with test and reserve pilot Mika Kallio taking his place for the rest of the year.
As it turned out this period of instability came at the worst time, as Espargaro fractured his wrist in practice for the race-forcing him out for the rest of the weekend and leaving Kallio to struggle home as KTM’s sole representative in 17th place.
Things seemed to quieten down over the closing races of the campaign, Espargaro securing his first top ten since Misano at the finale in Valencia while Kallio managed to bag seven points over his six races with the race squad.
All in all it was a promising year for the team, with strong speed shown at several venues across the schedule, with KTM showing they mean business in a series of high-profile announcements regarding their ’20 plans.
The confirmation that they would ditch their factory Moto2 operation to focus more wholly on the premier class outfit outlines their determination to succeed, while the signing of ’19 intermediate class vice-champion Brad Binder to join Espargaro provides a formidable line up for them to close down the leading teams.
We’ll have to wait until the next set of pre-season tests at Sepang early in the New Year to find out whether KTM has what it takes to fight for rostrums consistently as early as next term, but one thing is for sure: as their canning of the Moto2 programme shows, it’s not a case of if KTM joins the leading pack, but when.
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