He has reached the age of 37, but Dani Pedrosa he hasn’t lost an iota of speed and commitment to motorcycling. The Spaniard decided to announce his withdrawal from the competition in 2018, but immediately linked up with KTM to exercise the role of tester in a team where the RC16 has won seven races since its incorporation. None with the three-time champion, since he has only played the Styrian GP on August 8, 2021 where he finished tenth as the second best driver of the team, but with all the indications of a driver who continues to gather information from the outset, in what will be his fifth season with the Austrian firm. The association continues to function and the sensations are so good that as soon as the year starts with the Sepang tests, Dani signed the best time of the day… although it was not reflected in the table.
The first day of testing for the MotoGP testers before the tests with the official riders (from February 10 to 12 in Sepang) gave Crutchlow the fastest on asphalt (2.01.146), but the reality is that a Pedrosa who decided not to mount the timing transponder on his KTM he stopped the clock at 2:00.4 after his best lap. The great cover of the session was a pilot who, seeing his performance, was asked if he saw himself active until he was 42 years old as Valentino did. “Don’t know”, began by saying to speedweek, before arguing his answer: “I still enjoy driving. For me it is the most beautiful thing in the world. as long as i can go fast and give correct feedback for KTM engineers, I’ll keep going.”
Dani does not plan to get off the bike, “as long as the KTM managers want to keep me and are convinced and have the feeling that I can still be useful. The priority is to continue performing and be in shape”. And before knowing these statements, from Mattighofen they already made a move. Pedrosa will compete from April 26 to 28 at the Jerez GP to familiarize himself with the new MotoGP format and that means that the confidence that the Spaniard demands continues to be maintained at the KTM headquarters. After that appointment, the three-time champion will continue with his work, but “with a clear idea and information of what is needed and what is not” so that the RC16 evolves and from Austria, they continue to trust him. Reasons, it continues to give plenty.