Dani Pedrosa leaves Honda and signs for KTM as a test driver but the Spaniard was not in Valencia in the first tests of the season nor will he be in Jerez and only in 2019 can he climb to RC16, a situation that Honda has nothing to do .

At first it was thought that it had been Honda to prevent the Spaniard from testing the Austrian machine, because he understood that Honda had a thorough knowledge of Honda, a possibility that proved to be unsuccessful. With KTM having this year Johann Zarco and betting on Tech3, they have four bikes on the grid, which would make perfect sense to want to have Dani Pedrosa already.

But that was exactly why the Spaniard was not already testing. It was the enlargement of the operations of the Austrians that prevented, due to time constraints, that a team was prepared to assist him in the tests. In addition to the preparations to get off to a good start in 2019, with Johann Zarco, KTM is still heavily linked to Tech3, which will have RC16 technically identical to the factory. The team’s team manager, Mike Leitner, confirmed to TodoCircuito Pedrosa’s absence from the tests:

– It’s easy, having two bikes to test in our garage plus two more bikes for the Tech3 team, we did not have enough time to create a test team for Pedrosa. We want to start well going in the right direction. Dani does not need introductions, the results perfectly describe what he has achieved throughout his career. I know Pedrosa very well after having spent many years with him in the garage.