Due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the six MotoGP manufacturers agreed to completely freeze the development of homologated parts for the 2020 season, with these restrictions on engine and aerodynamics updates remaining in place for all non-concession runners in 2021.
KTM started as a concession manufacturer in 2020 because there were no dry MotoGP podium places before, but lost this status thanks to the victories of Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira at the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic and Styria.
The MotoGP manufacturers agreed that KTM could develop a new engine for 2021 before the opening round, although a member attending the meeting announced to Autosport last year that KTM fears that it will be able to build a “super engine” with it.
After the official KTM launch event in 2021, Beirer said some developments had been made, but the RC16 doesn’t have a “radically new engine”.
“It’s the same bike concept, not a radically new engine,” he said when he was asked by Autosport whether KTM had decided against a new engine concept.
“We touched a few parts, but didn’t bring a completely new model.
“If we take advantage of the gap between the lines, we could actually build a completely new bike.
“But first of all, you must have the manpower and we have made a commitment to our colleagues that, overall, we are working in a useful format and not destroying too much material, and that is exactly what we have done.
“We didn’t have the plan to build a completely new machine and use this moment to take advantage of it.”
He added, “We committed to a COVID protocol at the worst of our management career, all of these managers, when we had all of the manufacturers in one phone call and we all decided to protect MotoGP in our companies and our tools for the future to keep, not to burn crazy.
“Burning money would mean not consuming good material from 2020 and destroying it and building completely new material for 2021 as we only have 10 races planned.
“Later it became 14 races, so we used a lot more than we thought for the 2020 material, but still all of the material for six races has been postponed to the new season and we want to use it too.”
“So we did some development, we worked on some parts because our engine was never planned to reach the mileage for a non-concession team when we were planning the 2020 season.
“We had to make some changes, but not the most important ones.”
