Pol Espargaro says Dani Pedrosa joining KTM as an official MotoGP test rider next year would be a “dream”, and feels there would be more “pros than cons” to the Spaniard's appointment.
Pedrosa announced during the Sachsenring weekend he would be ending his 18-year racing career at the conclusion of this season, but was linked to test roles with Honda and KTM.
While no official confirmation has been made, it is thought Pedrosa will join the Austrian marque next year and partner Mika Kallio – whose contract extension was confirmed on Thursday – in its test team.
Espargaro, who will remain with KTM through to the end of 2020, believes Pedrosa's experience will give KTM “ a lot of new tools to work with”.
“I would like,” Espargaro said when asked about Pedrosa as a potential KTM test rider. “He is one of the most experienced guys in the category, he knows better than no-on – together with Marc [Marquez] – the Honda.
“He knows all the details of this bike, all the riding styles, all the progressions of the bike and how a winning factory team is working during a race weekend.
“So he can give us a lot of new tools to work with, but I think it will be difficult to have him in the team [because] he is a big name.
“Actually, to have Johann [Zarco] next year as a teammate has been a very great move by KTM. So to have Dani as a test rider, it would be like a dream for all our factory. So I hope so.”
KTM made rapid process in its debut season last year but has struggled to make further gains this year, with it fifth in the manufacturers' table on 41 points and just 12 ahead of last-placed Aprilia.
Espargaro believes part of the reason for this is the sheer volume of new parts KTM is constantly bringing to race weekends, though admits the team “knew” this would be the case and that the situation "it needs to be like this".
“For sure, a lot of weekends we have changed bike, chassis, swingarm, even sometimes back-to-backing engines,” he explained.
“It's never easy to not really know the character of one bike during many races. But we knew that, KTM is now in a moment it needs to be like this.
“They need to bring a lot of pieces, a lot of new stuff coming. We have not enough tests to try all the things, all the tests are really tough and we are never finishing all the list [of things to try].”
Espargaro also said his absence for three races through injury, as well as Kallio's inability to to test and the fact teammate Bradley Smith has signed to Aprilia as test rider for next year has hindered KTM's progress this year.
“Obviously, this contract moving doesn't help on the progression of the team,” he added.
“Yeah, I think we cross very bad luck [and] timing. I've been out of racing for a period from Austrian GP, the [home] race of KTM, also Mika got injured in Sachsenring [and] still is injured.
“Also my teammate is going to go to another team next year with another factory, and it's never easy this situation.”
