MotoGP: Danilo Petrucci “I want to be the best KTM rider”

With 2 MotoGP race wins under his belt, Danilo Petrucci aims to be the best rider in KTM.

In an interview with Speedweek.com Danilo Petrucci expressed his desire to rise to the top of KTM and be their best rider winning races for the factory and joining their exclusive club of premier class race winners, currently the club contains Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder but with Petrucci’s experience and past performances he feels he will be able to impress.

We have spoken before about Petrucci and why he will be a good fit for KTM which can be read here, the bike is incredibly competitive following the outstanding work from their test team and test riders of Dani Pedrosa and Mika Kallio whos countless hours behind the scenes transformed the bike from a machine which Pol Espargaro felt would fall apart on the straights into one of the best bikes on the grid.

In 2020 KTM were able to win three MotoGP races and amassed 8 podiums with Pol Espargaro racking up 5 of these for the Austrian manufacturer before departing to go to Repsol Honda. This departure opened the doors for Miguel Oliveira to step into the factory team alongside Brad Binder who have shared a pit box in Moto3 and Moto2 and have been described by many as a ‘dream team’.

Now with Petrucci being told at the start of the season by Ducati that he was out of a ride, the rumours very quickly turned towards KTM and their vacated factory seat, these rumours eventually came alive when it was announced Petrucci would join the Tech3 team. Many expected him to join their factory efforts however given Miguel Oliveira’s history with the brand and past achievements; it would’ve been entirely unfair of KTM to keep Oliveira in Tech3 especially after Brad Binder was hired to replace Johann Zarco and not Oliveira, therefore hiring Petrucci into the factory team would’ve more than likely pushed Oliveira to look elsewhere for a ride.

Petrucci took his second premier class win at a wet Le Mans in 2020

KTM succeeded in 2020 as previously mentioned with 3 race wins to their name including two historic wins for the Tech3 team who have been chasing a premier class win for 20 years with Yamaha before finally realising this dream not once but twice in MotoGP, they have hired the greatly experienced Danilo Petrucci who boasts 2 MotoGP race wins for Ducati and joins the team aiming to add more wins to this tally before his career ends.

Speaking with Speedweek he said, “I want to be as fast as possible. KTM is a great factory and Tech3 is a great team. I don’t know if I can, but I want to be the best KTM rider. It would certainly be important for my future at KTM. But I know that Binder, Oliveira and Lecuona know the bike better than I do. But I have more experience in MotoGP”.