KTM has confirmed Dani Pedrosa will make a racing return to the MotoGP World Championship at the upcoming Styrian MotoGP in Austria.
In what will be his first race outing since retiring from the sport full-time at the end of the 2018 MotoGP season, Pedrosa will line-up alongside Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder on a third KTM Factory Racing RC16 at the Red Bull Ring.
Rumours of Pedrosa lining up on the grid have persisted ever since he concluded a 13-year career as a Repsol Honda rider in MotoGP in favour of a development role with KTM from 2019. However, the Spaniard has often dismissed offers to do so, preferring instead to focus on bringing the RC16 up to speed.
Nevertheless, with the current KTM RC16 reaching the end of its development cycle and focus instead turning towards a new generation of formula in 2022, Pedrosa has accepted the opportunity to compete at KTM’s home venue.
Citing the need to test the RC16 in racing conditions in order to help KTM find a few crucial thousandths in performance, Pedrosa says he does not have any expectations.
“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. 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. I wish to understand the requests riders might have for different sessions and technical features.
“Watching from home I can sense the improvements in the bikes and the racing but in order to understand more about MotoGP now, the new technologies and how to race and use strategies against the others we’ll make this wildcard.
“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.”
