POWERSPORTS CONTINUED
POWERSPORTS CONTINUED This is what true fans look like. Test rider Mika Kallio (#36) watches the lap times. Deciding on the race strategy. tense atmosphere. On the technical side are the racing engineers, who tune the motorcycles for each GP together with the mechanics and riders. A large number of technical parameters need to be tweaked just right, taking the rider’s potential into account. The team manager is always the strategic leader, the one who pulls the strings and consults with each rider’s crew chief to set the race strategy for each rider and for the team as a whole. As mastermind, he knows he can rely on each and every member of the team. WHEN YOUR BACK HURTS The physical therapist is the only one aware of the rider’s back pains from the latest crash during training. After his fastest qualifying lap, the rider is totally focused and the pain has faded away. The prospect of earning championship points can work miracles. The “paddock guests,” VIPs invited to visit KTM’s pit boxes during the GP, are astonished by the professionalism and cleanliness as well as the equipment found here. 12
Pol Espargaró: Celebrating championship points. ktm.com/en/ racing/motogp/ CATCHING BREATH AFTER THE RACE Keeping cool is team culture. But as soon as the riders are out on the circuit, every team member becomes their copilot. They share the fever, hash over the progress of the race and put their emotions on display in a variety of ways. If the racers are in good shape after the race and made a strong showing, everyone can take a deep breath. The gratitude is boundless. At the next of the 19 GP races of the season, the tension will once again hold everyone in its grip. For nine months out of the year, no one here would have it any other way. Visitors in the pit. In just a few weeks the entire KTM MotoGP retinue will set out again for the first test runs of the 2019 season. So the chase goes on, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team and its promising riders have an exciting second racing season in the top tier to look forward to. • MOTOREX MAGAZINE 114 I JANUARY 2019 13
