How KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer wants Francesco Guidotti’s role as team manager in 2022 to be distinct from that of predecessor Mike Leitner
KTM has brought a new team manager on board for the 2022 MotoGP season. Francesco Guidotti, who already worked for KTM in the small World Championship classes in the late 2000s, was brought back to Mattighofen from Pramac-Ducati a few months ago. As KTM team manager, Guidotti succeeds Mike Leitner, who is now “only” active in an advisory capacity.
Guidotti himself outlines his main tasks in KTM’s MotoGP project, which includes a total of four riders in the person of Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez, by saying: “We have to support the two [factory] riders in the best possible way and help the Tech 3 team to bring the two rookies up. This is a huge project and they need someone to hold it all together. “
If KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer has his way, Guidotti should fill the role of team manager differently than Leitner did for years. “Francesco is definitely not with us to be our chief technician. He is with us to take care of all our people at the track,” Beirer said.
Unlike the technically minded Leitner, Guidotti is to “really look after the human element”, as Beirer underlines, giving an example: “What we don’t want is to have a technical discussion between the team management and the team on a Friday night or on a Saturday night, and we get caught up in that. “
“The team management should be there for the riders,” Beirer clearly distinguishes Guidotti’s role from that of a technician, and points out: “We really want to take care of the riders and their wishes. For this reason, we will also have Dani [Pedrosa] at the races a lot.”
“The highest priority must be to have satisfied riders,” emphasises the KTM motorsport boss ahead of the Austrian manufacturer’s sixth season in total in the premier class of the motorbike world championship. Binder, Oliveira, Gardner and Fernandez will be happy to hear it. Whether the fresh wind at KTM will also ensure corresponding successes on the track remains to be seen.