Heavy and frequent showers hit Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s workload at the Autodromo del Mugello and the one-day official test in the wake of the Italian Grand Prix. Brad Binder was able to clock a few laps in dry, mixed and wet conditions and set the fastest time when the track was in its best state. Jack Miller registered 32 laps with different settings for the climate and ranked 4th.
Back to work after the seventh Grand Prix of the season but the unstable weather in the Tuscan hills wreaked havoc with the team’s plan and schedule for the eight-hour test session. Brad Binder was able to log two flying laps before the first showers came and then worked on variations of his wet settings for the KTM RC16. Jack Miller was forced to follow a similar agenda as the rain dowsed the track particularly hard in the middle of the afternoon.
The crew were able to gain marginal information and data because of the situation and will now have a short break in the Grand Prix calendar to assess improvements for the next phase of 2024. MotoGP will down tools for three weeks and until the final weekend of June when the Dutch TT at the TT Circuit Assen will bring round eight to life.
Brad Binder, 1st: “I did two flying laps in the dry this morning but then it started bucketing-it down, so we changed to the wet settings for a few more laps and then it started to dry a bit because the track temperature was good! Then poured again. So, we didn’t’ get too much accomplished. With this type of weather it is always difficult to get through the test items that we wanted. It was cool to try a full wet set-up because that usually takes time to sort out.”
Jack Miller, 4th: “We played around with Traction Control strategy and a few other things that I felt we needed to for the wet, like the geometry. We just tried to make the most of a lacklustre day. We needed good conditions…but we didn’t get them. We’ve changed a lot recently but we couldn’t change the weather!”
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “In the end we didn’t really have a test today. We had things to try, and we also wanted to run with the specification of the bike that Pol used but the weather was too inconsistent. Not enough rain and then too much! Anyway, we have a few weeks now to look at the data from these last two GPs and plan for the next two.”
Sebastian Risse, Red Bull KTM Technical Manager MotoGP: “Well, we had a very good plan! There were development items for the short, medium and long term and we also wanted to work on some of the issues and settings we have in the last few races. Of course, even when it’s wet, the conditions are never really consistent, depending on how much water there is on track and it’s hard to draw conclusions on test items so we focused on the areas that we could and found a few positives with electronics. Now we’re keen to introduce it. We have some weeks now to make the best possible plan for Assen and Sachsenring.”
Mugello official test final times
1. Brad Binder (RSA) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1:47.617
2. Pedro Acosta (ESP) Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 +0.033
3. Luca Marini (ITA) Honda +1.434
4. Jack Miller (AUS) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +1.614
13. Augusto Fernandez (ESP) Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 +12.435
