MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There were very few pundits giving KTM much of a chance at the start of the 2023 MotoGP season. The RC16 had not made much of an impression at the Sepang and Portimão tests. At Sepang, Pol Espargaro was the fastest of the RC16 riders, the GasGas Tech3 man 13th 0.9 behind fastest rider Luca Marini. At Portimão, Brad Binder led the Austrian charge in 9th, half a second off the quickest man Pecco Bagnaia.

How wrong we all were. Brad Binder has won two sprint races, and Binder and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Jack Miller have a handful of podiums between them, Binder missing out on another couple of podiums at Assen thanks to track limits infractions. Binder is fourth in the championship, and KTM are second in the manufacturers' standings.

That big step in performance has come from adapting to the way that MotoGP has changed in the past couple of years. The RC16 is stressing the front tire less, and is able to turn and brake better as a result. KTM found a way to address the radical changes the sport has seen, with aerodynamic and ride-height devices altering the way the bikes behave, and how they use the tires.

At Assen, I spoke to KTM's Technical Director of MotoGP, Sebastian Risse about how the project has changed over the years. Risse has been with the project since the start, and has built up a deep understanding of what it takes to make a MotoGP bike competitive over the years.

The interview developed into a fascinating conversation on what a MotoGP bike needs to go fast in 2023. Risse described how the KTM RC16 has changed over the years, shifting away from the bike it was modeled on toward the very different philosophy demanded to be competitive now. We took a deep dive into the role of aerodynamics on acceleration, and how it has moved the physical limits of a MotoGP machine. We discussed the role of electronics, and how much control to give to a specific rider. And Risse explains how engineers face the design challenges of a modern MotoGP machine.

But we started with how the bikes have changed in the last few years.

Q: The bikes have changed so much, especially in last 3 years, they have become almost unrecognizable. How have the design goals changed for the bike you started work on in 2016 to the bike you're working on today?

Sebastian Risse: I mean of course it's now a mix of how the class has changed, and how we have evolved from starting somewhere to getting to the bike we have now. Overall for us, of course, our starting point was to try to be let's say quite conservative, and we mainly looked at the bikes that were competitive at that time, when the layout was started. So 2015, basically.

It was clear, the only four cylinder V engine that was competitive was Honda. So we looked very close at them, tried to understand why they are like they are and how they evolved before. To understand the trends.

It was quite a compact design. Very centered. And then of course we have these let's say, innovative aspects on our bike which were the frame and the suspension, different to everybody else. So you try to reduce the risk in another areas, to have a solid starting point.

And, of course, at that time we were not very keen or focused on downforce aero and things like this. We were quite old school. Also our test rider at that time, Mika, he was clearly not fancying this direction of development. So at first, I think that's what you also saw in the first years of our bike, it was very conservative on the aerodynamic side.

But it was clear that this class was moving rapidly, I think, mainly driven by excessive power. You have power, you have more and more and more power you can invest it somewhere. And you invest it to get downforce.

Q: Could you achieve the same with electronics?

SR: No. Electronics, don't change the physical limits of the bike. They help you to be on that limit, but the physical limits are there. And you move them with aerodynamics. So I think that was the biggest trend we have seen now in these last years, going from low drag aero to high downforce aero, then to more balanced downforce aero. And more looking at the bike behavior, handling, turning, and trying to also consider this in the aero development. But it all starts from having power.

Q: Without power you can't do anything. Is it fair to say that you started short and high? And went longer and lower as you went along? I mean in the broadest possible terms?

SR: I mean, also this comes from the reference that we had, of course, which was the Honda at that time. We looked at them. Tried to analyze from photos, benchmark, and so on. And it is a very compact bike, it has been a very low, short, compact design. And I think in these years now, you have seen that a manufacturer that had another philosophy already from long time ago, became more and more and more successful.

Then together with the fact of Marc missing, or not being at his hundred percent for a long time, of course, it's changing the focus and the philosophy that the whole class is taking. I think the Honda has still the potential to be a good bike, and it's not that this concept cannot work and another one suddenly works. No.

I mean, Ducati did a great job working on their concept, and exploiting this to the maximum, and now it looks like this kind of concept is a benchmark. But I think you can also make others work. But generally these tires seem to like it. Especially the last generation of these seem to like a more constant and smooth, less aggressive loading, and this leads more to bigger bikes, controlling the transfer, making everything a little bit more slow, stable. So I think that the tire development also played a role in changing this balance.

Q: So before, for example the Honda was developed in the Bridgestone era when what you wanted on the front was just to force as much load into the tire as you possibly can as quickly as possible. And it reacted extremely well, then it would then it would grip. And now the Michelins want much more of a gentle transfer?