The scenario from which Pedrosa left in 2018 and after 13 seasons in the heavy motorcycle category, all of them representing the Repsol Honda team, has nothing to do with the one he will find on August 8 in Spielberg , 955 days later. of that last race in Cheste.
The level of general competitiveness has skyrocketed, and although Fabio Quartararo leads the general table of points with some ease (34 points over Johann Zarco), the margins between one and the other have been greatly reduced, in part, due to the tremendous equality that there are between the different bikes.
One of Pedrosa’s objectives with a view to this Grand Prix, in which he will once again feel the pressure of competing for position, is precisely to test all the material that he evaluates and selects, but in race conditions. A great challenge that will surely be somewhat more bearable at the Red Bull Ring, a track owned by the energy drink brand sponsored by KTM, and in which the rider from Castellar del Vallès (Barcelona) has had a lot of riding in private sessions . If there is a track that the #26 knows every corner of, that is Austria, where, without a doubt, he will star in one of the most anticipated comebacks of recent times.
“It’s hard to say what we expect. It’s been a long time, and the mentality you have during a test is very different from the one you should have when you face a race. And not only in my case, but also in that of my mechanics. A large part of our work will be to adapt to it”, agrees Pedrosa, in an interview published by KTM.
The Catalan left a contest dominated by the roller of Marc Márquez, at that time his neighbor in the workshop at HRC , and now a very different panorama will be found, much more open and less predictable.
“It is difficult to say what has changed, but MotoGP has changed, there is no doubt about that. First of all, by the pilots. There is a new generation that goes very fast, and that causes the lap times to go down every time. Motorcycles improve technologically. That can be seen from home, but doing it from there is different from doing it on site. That is why this wildcard will be interesting”, continues the three-time 125cc world champion (2003) and two and a half (2004 and 2005).
Regarding the goal that he aspires to achieve in Spielberg, more than a result, what he claims to be looking for are answers to certain questions that have arisen with the new dynamics during the Grand Prix weekends.
“We want to analyze the different strategies that are being carried out, and try to get the most out of those crucial moments such as, for example, the third free trial or the timed ones,” Pedrosa concludes.
