Jonas Folger is reportedly on his way back to the MotoGP world championship in 2023 thanks to KTM.
The news was confirmed by KTM MotoGP director Pit Bierer during Thursday’s Red Bull KTM team launch.
The former Tech3 Yamaha rider will partner up with Dani Pedrosa and Mika Kallio on the 2023-spec KTM RC16 in his new role.
“We know Jonas quite well and he’s briefly ridden our bike before. He knows what it takes to put a motorcycle at the front of a Grand Prix and he is still young and has a lot to contribute.” Bierer said.
“Compared to Dani and Mika he has a different body-type and style and that will also help us with our development.
“The test team is a fantastic group and I cannot stress enough how much of a strong foundation it makes for our MotoGP racing.” Bierer added.
Folger will be in Sepang from February 5-7, and will be one of the riders in action on the KTM RC16 to carry out the necessary testing for the Austrian motorcycle manufacturer.
The 29-year-old German completed nine full world championship seasons between 2009 and 2017 and logged a total of 5 victories in 125cc, Moto3 and Moto2 categories and 24 visits to a rostrum.
KTM has now confirmed that Pedrosa will compete as a wildcard in the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez at the end of April.
“This wildcard proves how important Dani is to us and how great his contribution to our MotoGP project is.” KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti said.
“With this entry we want to put him in a position where he can share with us not only his feedback from testing, but also from a race weekend.” he added.
Folger retired as a Yamaha MotoGP test rider in 2018, but this was also unsuccessful.
