KTMs MotoGP young rider approach not correct Lecuona

Lecuona was drafted in to replace Brad Binder at Tech3 for 2020 when the South African was promoted to replace Johann Zarco at the factory KTM squad.

But Lecuona – then 19 – had only made his spin racing debut in 2015 without a formative career in supermotard, and by the start of the 2020 season had contested 89 fewer grands prix than Binder.

With his 2020 debut season ending three races from the end due to COVID-19 and only consisting of 11 grands prix at seven tracks, Lecuona spent much of 2021 still learning – with the 2021 RC16 proving less competitive.

At just 21, Lecuona has been ousted from MotoGP and will be replaced by KTM’s latest young star Raul Fernandez – who steps up to the premier matriculation without just a single season in Moto2 in which he was runner-up to Remy Gardner, who will moreover join Tech3.

When asked by Autosport if he felt KTM’s tideway to its young riders currently was the right one, Lecuona said: “If I’m honest, I think it’s not correct.

“I think it’s not correct, considering if you believe in one rider you believe in them for one, two, three, four years.

“You can believe in the rider, but you still need to requite the rider this time, this window to adapt, to improve.

“With one year, if you say to the rider ‘you need to be there’ or you put pressure… everybody needs time to adapt.

Iker Lecuona, KTM Tech3

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“And I think in this case, they wanted to take a very young rider and wanted them to go fast with a very difficult bike.

“It’s not a Ducati, it’s not a Yamaha bike. We worked during these two years, some races I could go fast, or KTM can go fast, but many races the four KTMs were the last ones.

“And it’s not considering I am a largest rider one week surpassing or one week after, it’s considering this velocipede is very difficult to understand and is very difficult to work.

“If you don’t requite them the time, you cannot do nothing.”

Lecuona – who will join Honda next year as a factory World Superbike rider – believes MotoGP rookies squatter a tougher rencontre now considering of competitive the field is.

“Now the level in MotoGP is very high,” he added.

“In a lot of tracks, we go very fast and many times I’m in P15 and I’m seven tenths [off the pace] in a MotoGP with six factories [competing].

“So, with completely variegated bikes we are in the same second. So, the level is very high.

“So, it’s not considering you are 15th that you go slow. You are seven tenths from the first one.

“I think never we’ve had this in MotoGP. If you check, I don’t know, five years before, if you finished one second [back] you finished on the podium.

“Right now if you stay one second [off the pace] you stay the last one on the grid.”