Enea Bastianini says he was “surprised” by a lot of elements of the KTM MotoGP bike he tested last November bಌut has warned against the marque creatin💮g a Ducati clone.

The seven-time grand prix winner moves to the Tech3 KTM squad having spent all four years of his MotoGP career so far on D💦ucati machinery.

While his knowledge of the dominant Ducati will prove vital to KTM in developing its own machine, Bastianini n♉oted that there were a lot of areas where the RC16 was just as good.

As such, he says the bike “has to remain a KTM” and isn’t looking to make many comparisons b🐼etween the Duca❀ti and the RC16 when testing begins next week.

“The job of Ducati was so good, and also the bike was so good,” he said following KTM’s 202ℱ5 launch.

“I don’t know ve🍌ry well for the moment how the work will be inside KTM. But during the test we talked a lot, trying to do the test for෴ the future.

“The bike has some potential. To compare with Ducati is not easy, because the bike is ඣdifferent, also the strongest points are different.

“But for the rest, it was ok. Also the set-up was ok from the start, also the posit🌸ion on the bike is very similar.

“But for thꦍe rest, I don’t know which areas where ♌we have to work more because I only did 50 laps.

“So, I need more time to understand better. But, well, I remain surprised.ܫ🍎”

When asked to build on where specifically the KTM surprised him, he added: “On the entry, the biไke has 🐬a lot of grip, and for this I am surprised.

“We need to work on the drive because on driv𝓰e the Ducati was so nice𓆉. But I don’t want to do a lot of comparisons.

“This bike is different and has to remain a KTM. We have t𓂃o do the strongest parts of the bike much stronger.

“For me, this is the best thing, and also I have to adapt 𒁏my style a bit to the bike because after four years it’s not easy to change.”

Bastia💝nini will be reunited with cr♈ew chief Alberto Giribuola at Tech3 this year, having previously worked with him at Gresini in 2022.

For Bastianini, he believes working again with the ex-Andrea Do💫vizioso crew chief will speed up his adaptatio🔯n to the KTM this winter.

“With Albi, it’s very, very good to be back again to൩gether,” he beamed.&n꧙bsp;

“Well, i☂t’s one point more to have him inside the box because he knows very well my✃ style and what I need.

“It will be good also to shorten my adaptation, we can try to do something goo🧔d much earlier.

“This is so good. We talked a lot during the winter to arrive prepared for the test and try to do already some modifications on the bike before sta༺rting.”