Veteran French rider Randy de Puniet is back to MotoGP bikes, after KTM had to find a replacement for Finish rider Mika Kallio, who has a serious right knee injury after his crash at Sachsenring, and will be out of action for many months.
De Puniet was chosen to be the new KTM test rider until the end of the season, and to help KTM in developing the current RC16 prototype, it will help that the veteran rider already knows the bike from previous tests, when he helped develop the project back in 2016 together with Alex Hoffman and Thomas Luthi (German rider who is back in Moto2 next season after a poor rookie season in MotoGP this year).
Having raced regularly in FIM EWC in recent years, Randy de Puniet isn’t completely out of pace, but a MotoGP bike is completely different from the production bikes De Puniet has become used to. With Pol Espargaró also out of action recovering from injury, the Frenchman could be called to race at Silverstone, but he already told KTM boss Pit Beirer that he’ll only race if he can test the bike before Silverstone.
Beirer seems to agree with that decision, but for the moment the team is concentrating in the recovery of Pol Espargaró, who continues to believe he will be able to race at Silverstone.