MotoGP: Factory KTM riders looking to do even better in 2021, Oliveira eyes title

The Factory KTM riders are looking to better their 2020 seasons and take the title home to Austria.

After an incredibly successful season which saw KTM take their first, second and third MotoGP wins with Binder and Oliveira being the riders to achieve this, KTM are not looking to slow down and are going full steam ahead into 2021 with Oliveira eyeing the MotoGP title in his third season in the class.

After spending two seasons in Tech3 colours, Oliveira will rightfully take his place alongside long-time KTM teammate Brad Binder in the Factory Red Bull KTM team, a team dubbed as a “dream team” by Pit Beirer. The duo were paired together Moto3 and Moto2 and fought for podiums and victories alongside one another.

As a rookie, Brad Binder was able to do the unthinkable and win just his third MotoGP race at Brno in fine style, dominating the race and stunning KTM who couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Binder’s fantastic Moto2 style worked incredibly well in MotoGP and this showed, aside from this win his season was fairly impressive taking the rookie of the year title, however, a few mistakes cost him dearly as the season went on with various crashes.

Going into 2021 he is looking to right his wrongs.

“I wanted to be the rookie of the year in 2020, 2020 blew all of our expectations out of the water and in 2021 I want to make it a helluva lot better.

“We achieved a lot in 2020 with a few good results including mine and KTM’s first victory, there were so many days where we had potential to do much more but I made a lot of mistakes and thew away a lot of golden opportunities, so in general, it was frustrating, this is something I want to fix this year we have the speed and pace to do a good job.

“Now the margin to improve is smaller but I think as the season went on last year things got better and better, I felt like I was improving in the way I was approaching weekends taking it session by session, whenever I have lots of time off like now in the offseason I make my biggest steps so I am excited for this year.”

Oliveira was able to take two MotoGP wins in 2020 giving Tech3 their first-ever wins in the class after 20 years. From a stunning last lap in Austria whereby he studied his opponents to perfection and struck whilst the iron was hot winning the race, to dominating everyone at Portimao winning the race in fine style, Oliveira has shown he has what it takes and 2021 is no different.

As he moves into the factory team he expects to start the season how the 2020 season finished, winning.

“I feel like my mindset has been reset, I was on the top step of the podium in the last race but I don’t need to feel any extra pressure, I have arrived at a place where I wanted to be [the factory team].

“I need to make myself at home with the team and understand how everything works and build the results, I see myself with the possibility to start where 2020 left off [winning races].

“My introduction to MotoGP via Tech3 was nice, it was low pressure and everyone was friendly so I felt at home quickly, I am expecting to come into a more difficult world and to be able to work on more details with the factory team and be more consistent.

“I think to be successful we would need to be world champions, it is ambitious but we have the right tools, people and the right determination to put into the project, we are very capable of achieving this result.”

Featured images – KTM Press Centre / Philip Platzer