KTM “missing a bit of feeling in long distance races, but we’re not far away”

The factory Red Bull Racing team manager, was speaking about the team’s opening part to the season where he graded them with a 7.5 out of 10. 

Brad Binder has already claimed two sprint wins for the Austrian manufacturer, while Jack Miller has also been a podium finisher as well as being one of the reasons for their improved qualifying.

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For many years KTM had a competitive package but were limited in the race because of their starting position.

But with Miller and Binder both becoming regular challengers for the top positions, their race results have taken steps forward as a result, despite Ducati being even more dominant than last season. 

"One of the achievements for this year was to have qualifying lap times improved, and the last five races out of seven we had both riders in Q2,” said Guidotti. “It looks like we have achieved this target already."

While qualifying and the sprint races have been strong for KTM, they’re yet to win a Grand Prix in 2023.

This is one of the team’s main aims during the second half the year as Guidotti believes they’re ‘not too far away’.

"With the new format and the sprint races, it is something that we enjoy because it’s somewhere that we perform well with both riders, but especially with Brad. 

"We miss a little bit of feeling in the long distance but we are not too far away, like last year. For the rest of the season I think we can be confident to have some more achievements. 

"We’re not too far but we have to recover something. Right now we are on the right path and the results have given us a lot of confidence. 

"But we have to keep our feet on the ground and not raise expectations too much. We need a little bit of time to fix everything."