PEDROSA CONFIRMED FOR MOTOGP WILDCARD
Three-time MotoGP Championship runner-up Dani Pedrosa will make a return, riding as a wildcard entry in the Grand Prix of Styria in Austria.
Pedrosa will ride for the factory Red Bull KTM team in the 10th round of the 2021 MotoGP season at the Red Bull Ring from August 6-8.
The 35-year-old has been involved in KTM’s development program since his full-time retirement at the end of 2018.
Pedrosa’s return ride will form part of an important testing period for the KTM RC16, gaining data about its performance in competition conditions.
When discussing the decision, Pedrosa was focused on the development of the bike rather than his own performance.
“It’s been super interesting to be part of this project from the beginning with KTM in MotoGP and being able to share my experience with them,” Pedrosa said.
“Step-by-step we did the best we could and now it’s interesting again to go into a race because it gives you a different perspective compared to a normal test.”
“It has been a long time since my last race and, of course, the mentality for a GP is very different to a test.
“My focus for the GP is to try to test the things we have on the bike in a race situation.
“It’s difficult to talk about my expectations after being so long away from competition. It might all click into a racing mentality, or it might not, but we’ll try to enjoy the weekend as much as we can.”
During his MotoGP career the Spaniard tallied up an impressive list of achievements, including 31 wins and 112 podium results across 13 seasons riding for the factory Honda team between 2006 and 2018.
Red Bull KTM Race Manager Mike Leitner was looking forward to the contributions Pedrosa could make at the track, on top of those he has already made behind the scenes.
“It will be curious to see Dani in MotoGP again,” said Leitner.
“He has been away from racing for quite a long time, but it will be valuable to have him in garage at Red Bull Ring to analyse the strong and not-so-strong parts of our KTM RC16.”
“Dani has had a big influence in our MotoGP project thanks to all of his experience.
“He will have a mixture of the current race bike and some small upgrades and he will have some testing to do during the weekend but we also don’t want to overload him. We want him to enjoy the Grand Prix!”
Red Bull KTM are currently fourth in the teams’ standings on 145 points, behind Yamaha, the factory Ducati team and Pramac Ducati.
French factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo currently leads the riders’ standings on 156 points, while Australian Jack Miller is fifth on 100 points.
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