KTM tested a new feature on its RC16s in 2023, with both factory team riders trialling the carbon chassis. As yet unsure when the GASGAS Tech3 riders will also have the same equipment, Hervé Poncharal expressed his confidence that this could happen very soon.
In an interview with Paddock-GP, the Tech3 owner was asked about the possibility of his team also having the same equipment as Jack Miller and Brad Binder, and he replied: ‘As far as the technical side is concerned, we’re relatively confident, but that still has to be confirmed by Pierer Mobility’s competition department, but we’re relatively confident that all four riders, that is, the two KTMs – Brad Binder’s and Jack Miller’s – and the two GASGAS Tech3s, that is, Augusto Fernández and Pedro Acosta, should be able to benefit from the carbon chassis’.
Without a date yet, Poncharal believes it could happen as early as the beginning of February: ‘Will it be at the Sepang test or later? I’m confident that we’ll be able to have them as early as Sepang, but in any case, it seems that this chassis will improve the riders’ feelings and performance. It’s much more complicated to build and manage in terms of maintenance, but the decision has been made that all four drivers will be able to have this type of equipment’.
He continued: ‘Binder and Miller did what we call the back to back, the comparison between the two. Augusto Fernández and Pedro Acosta haven’t done it yet, but if they approve, all four riders should have carbon chassis, which makes us very happy and gives us the guarantee that, in 2024, all four riders will have the same technical status, the same technical support and the same development in chronological terms’.