MotoGP Miguel Oliveira KTM: “we have to accept it and look to the future”

After the first three Grands Prix of the 2021 MotoGP season, Miguel Oliveira learned one thing: he must forget 2020 and his feelings of the off-season to start from a clean sheet with his orange KTM. Even on his home turf in Portimao, where he made his opponents see all the colors in November 2020, he was in the red. A fall in Q2, then another in the race to finish last by a lap… The shock was all the harder to absorb as, during this time, his teammate Brad Binder, who started from afar, grabbed a top 5 in Portugal at podium shooting range…

Miguel Oliveira will have to come to terms with it: he no longer has in his game the key asset that was a type of tire before Michelin withdrew it from its 2021 allocation. We must move on to something else and, moreover, the KTM sporting director Pete Beirer indirectly sent him this message: “ It’s a tire that we’re missing. But it no longer exists, so we no longer need to worry about it . You tune your motorcycle to a certain tire compound, which will eventually become your favorite tire. We did this in 2020 with the front tire, which has now been removed from allocation. It’s definitely a bit of a hassle to get this new front tire to work, which is a softer compound. It must not be forgotten “.

But you have to deal with it. The 26 -year-old pilot still broods over his national disappointment: “  it was a sad end to the home Grand Prix, we certainly didn’t dream it would be like this  ,” sighed the Red Bull factory driver KTM . “  We have to accept it and look to the future  .”

“  We tried to adjust the bike settings to be able to use this tire, but during the race the temperature of the asphalt increased. We also had a lot of other bikes in front of us, so the tire got really hot. Yes, we were at a disadvantage , but with the options we had, the medium front tire was definitely the best choice  ” Analyzes the Portuguese double winner in MotoGP during the 2020 season.