After retiring at the end of 2018, Dani Pedrosa switched from Repsol Honda to KTM to become a test rider – a role he still holds today. He has been a key part of the Austrian manufacturer’s success, performing duties that he was already familiar with from his time at Honda.
In a DAZN documentary, the “Little Samurai” recalled his early days as a KTM test rider: ‘I’ve always been very good as a test rider, I had done it for many years at Honda despite competing. I had Mike Leitner, who had been my head mechanic at Honda for many years. The bike was in a stage of evolution, they had started in 2017. It was a creative process in which I joined KTM, and the initial part of my work in the first year was to identify what the problems were and list them: first priority, second priority, third priority’.
Pedrosa emphasized that there were also interventions at the structural level, with the differences being noticeable for the better: ‘Some departments like the engine or suspensions had to grow in personnel, infrastructure, engineers… so that I could get what I was asking for. Now they are faster, more efficient, and of higher quality. There were so many priorities that we had to say that until we achieved the first one, we couldn’t move on to the next‘.
