Dani Pedrosa, wildcard at the Red Bull Ring

It was a rumor that had been circulating for a few weeks, it is now official: Dani Pedrosa will be a wildcard at the Styrian GP, ​​the next meeting on the calendar after the summer break.

Representing Honda GP from its beginnings in 2001 until announcing his retirement at the end of 2018, the Spaniard joined the ranks of the KTM factory a few months after his last race in rainy Valencia. Since then, Pedrosa has helped the Mattighofen firm develop the RC16 to lead it to its first success almost a year ago with Brad Binder at the Czech GP.

During his 13 seasons spent in MotoGP during which he won at least once except his last, the “Little Samurai” achieved 112 podiums, including 31 victories. Vice-world champion three times, he has never managed to take the crown. “It’s been super interesting to be part of this project from the start with KTM in MotoGP and to be able to share my experience with them,” confides Pedrosa following this announcement. Little by little, we did the best we could and the interest of doing a race will give us a different perspective compared to a classic test. »

The Little Samurai is back! 🔥@ 26_DaniPedrosa will return as a wildcard for KTM at the #StyrianGP ????????#MotoGP 📰https://t.co/DVqVSN9ZHT

- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) July 20, 2021

The conditions of a race weekend actually allow you to understand other aspects than during a private driving session while being alone on the track. “My last race was a long time ago and obviously the way of approaching a GP is very different from that of a test,” adds the driver, now 35 years old. My goal is to evaluate the things we have on the bike in a race setting. I want to understand the needs of the pilots based on the sessions and the technical characteristics. From home I can feel the progress made on the bikes, but we are going to do this wildcard to better understand today's MotoGP, the technical innovations and the way to race and put in place strategies to face the others . It's difficult to talk about my goals after being away from racing for so long. It might work out, or it might not, but we're going to try to enjoy the weekend as much as possible. »

See you in just over two weeks to witness the return of Dani Pedrosa to the MotoGP grid.