The keys to KTM's meteoric rise in MotoGP

An investment of forty million euros a year, the acquisition of key personnel and a whole lot of self-belief has powered KTM to its first MotoGP win, at the hands of Brad Binder in last weekend's Czech Grand Prix.

The rise of the orange bikes has been meteoric when you consider that just five years have passed since the initial prototype version of the RC16 completed its first laps in Spielberg. Huge investment in the MotoGP project, key appointments and perseverance have been the primary factors that led to an historic achievement at Brno, which left the factory staff pinching themselves whilst hugging each other in the pit garages.

"I am speechless," KTM's Sporting Director Pit Beirer said moments after Binder crossed the line. "We have fought a lot for this.

"The objective was to score our first dry podium; it is crazy that we have won. The secret is just in the improvements we have made to the bike."

The road to the top has not been easy - it never is in MotoGP - although nobody in the paddock would have bet a penny on victory for the Mattighofen manufacturer in the Czech Republic. Even less likely was the rider who achieved it: a rookie in just his third premier-class grand prix.

PLUS: Why a MotoGP rookie's Czech GP win wasn't a total shock

Even Pol Espargaro setting the fastest lap in warm-up wasn't enough to suggest the incredible drama that would come a few hours later. The question now is whether or not this was just a one-off that can be explained a combination of rare factors - the absence of Marc Marquez, problems for the majority of the Yamahas and the disappearance of Ducati - or if this is a genuine breakthrough that will see more success in the short term.

The timing is perfect, with back-to-back races coming up at Red Bull Ring, a track where KTM have done countless laps thanks to the testing concessions afforded to it as a 'new' manufacturer.

On the matter of testing, this is where another key component in the success at Brno comes into the equation: Dani Pedrosa (below). Since joining as a test rider in 2019, the Spaniard has taken on a central role in the development of the bike as well as optimising the work done in the race department.

His experience as a winner of 31 GPs on Honda machinery between 2006 and 2018, his standing and his feel for how a motorcycle should work have played a crucial role in the development of a prototype that underwent a radical change this year: abandoning the concept of a conventional tubular chassis in favour of a mixed one, demonstrating the factory's capacity to react and develop at speed. In taking such a change in approach, KTM made it clear that given the choice between staying true to a philosophy and winning, they prefer the latter.

Pedrosa has been influential, as have the people that have been brought in around him - several of them signed directly from HRC with many years of experience in MotoGP such as race manager Mike Leitner, who worked with Pedrosa as crew chief in the smaller categories and during his first few years in the premier class.

Austrian Leitner, a world championship regular on 125cc machinery between 1984 and 1990, has been joined by other ex-colleagues from Honda, technicians with established protocols and a clear methodology in terms of what needs to be done and when.

"It took us 11 years to win a Supercross, but once we'd done it we won five straight titles. We took seven years to win the Dakar, and then won it 18 times. It might take us another 10 years, but sooner or later we will also be dominant in MotoGP" Stefan Pierer

Pedrosa's famously sensitive feeling has combined perfectly with the talent and commitment of his compatriot Espargaro, probably the main catalyst in the performance gains made by the RC16, as Pedrosa himself recognises.

"Pol is doing an incredible job, nobody should overlook that," Pedrosa said at the end of last season, long before he knew that his colleague would be making the reverse switch to Honda for 2021.

"Pol's strength is that he doesn't hold anything back and always rides on the limit," an insider at KTM, who also used to work for Honda, told Autosport. "That's exactly what you need when a bike is under development. There is pressure here, of course there is, but it is an enjoyable place to work because they treat you well, there is budget for the project and they know what they have gotten themselves into."

The inferred reference is to the €40 million that the factory designated to their MotoGP racing department in 2019.

Nobody in their right mind, not least KTM CEO Stefan Pierer, would authorise such an outlay without an element of certainty about where it might lead to.

"It took us 11 years to win a Supercross, but once we'd done it we won five straight titles," Pierer pointed out in an interview last year with Autosport. "We took seven years to win the Dakar, and then won it 18 times. It might take us another 10 years, but sooner or later we will also be dominant in MotoGP."

At that time, Binder was seen as a key figure in the short-term future of the set-up, although Pierer surely couldn't have imagined that it would be the South African that would deliver that first win, and that he would do it in such convincing style.

Binder is a badge of the chest-beating belief that runs through KTM. From 2016, when he romped to the Moto3 title with seven wins and fourteen podiums, throughout the three difficult years spent subsequently in Moto2, Binder was always treated by KTM as an asset it valued, evidenced by his direct promotion to the factory MotoGP team.

Whether or not Sunday's success turns out to be a flash in the pan or whether we can now look forward to seeing those bright orange bikes fighting regularly at the front, it seems that the judgement on Binder was spot on.