KTM MotoGP drop Zarco for Kallio mid-season

In a fairly bold move, KTM MotoGP drop Zarco for Kallio mid-season, with six races left of the 2019 championship.

The French former double Moto2 world champion has already agreed to leave the Austrian team at the end of 2019, with a year of his contract still to run. The two-year deal was originally announced in 2018 to run through until the end of 2020.

From the KTM official release:
“Johann and KTM decided to mutually end their association at the end of 2019 but developments and on-going work mean that priorities have been realigned. The Frenchman will be exempt from his MotoGP duties but stays contracted to KTM until the end of the season. “

Zarco has struggled since moving from the Tech3 Yamaha squad to KTM, especially compared to team-mate Pol Espargaro, and despite the recent hiring of Dani Pedrosa as a KTM test rider. Zarco is currently 17th in the 2019 MotoGP championship, six places and 50 points behind his KM team-mate

With the contract running until the end of the year, Zarco has dismissed rumours of a Honda deal for WSB. And he has spoken positively in the past of switching to a test rider role, rather than a return to Moto2.

Mika Kallio has long been associated with KTM, with the 36-year-old switching to the brand in 125cc GPs back in 2003. He rode the KTM RC16 for the official race debute at Valencia 2016, and has been a test rider since then, also racing in seven wild card appearances. The top results have been 10th at both the 2017 Austrian round, and at the 2018 Spanish GP in Jerez.

The Finnish rider finished runner-up twice in the 125cc GP class, third in the 250cc GP class (all on KTM motorcycles), and was again runner-up in Moto2 in 2014, with a total 16 race wins and 49 podiums in his career.

Pit Beirer, KTM Motorsport Director: “We have to make decisions to ensure that we use our resources in the best possible way and we are currently in a positive direction with our MotoGP structure. We firmly believe that Mika can help us in this stage thanks to his knowledge and background. It is paramount that we verify our testing results in real race conditions to start our 2020 season in the best position. Mika has proved his ability on the RC16 and we are happy that he joins the line-up as a racer again. There is no doubt that we will focus on a new configuration with the #82 bike while fighting for points in the last races of the championship. At the same time we want to express gratitude to Johann for his effort since he joined our ambitious project in November last year. We now have to think of the future and are making this step accordingly. KTM will continue supporting him until the expiry of our contract at the end of the 2019 and we truly wish him all the best for his future.”

There’s no word yet on who might take the second factory KTM ride alongside Espargaro for 2020. Currently Miguel Oliveira will be joined by Brad Binder in the Red Bull KTM Tech 3 squad, who will replace Hafizh Syahrin.

Could Bradley Smith make a return, after moving to become a test rider with Aprilia for the 2019 season? The British rider make 3 wildcard appearances this season after riding for KTM in 2017 and 2018 alongside Espargaro.