Like every other non-Ducati manufacturer in MotoGP, KTM had very little reason to expect a victory challenge going into the Austrian Grand Prix given the extent to which the 2024-spec Ducatis have monopolised the leading positions as of late.
In that context, its return from the Red Bull Ring weekend - best finishes of fifth in the sprint courtesy of Jack Miller and in the grand prix courtesy of Brad Binder - felt at the very least par for the course.
But the Austrian GP is no ordinary weekend for the series' sole Austrian manufacturer, at a track owned by its title sponsor where KTM riders are supposed to be the stars of the show.
Binder, who was Pecco Bagnaia's biggest rival last year during the eventual champion's 2023 Austrian GP walkover, was proud of his performance - but didn't shy away from the realities of the situation when asked by The Race about the gap to the front.
"I would've loved to have got more - but clearly we haven't quite got the pace of the front three or four," he said. "I did my best. Felt like I couldn't have done the race more than a second quicker than I did.
"The position sounds better than the gap to the front. Honestly, fifth normally would be a couple of seconds, maybe three-four seconds. But 18s is massive.
"We clearly have some work to do if we want to try and get involved."
The difference to last year's event was stark across all the sessions.
Lead KTM's gap to first place in Austria
Qualifying
2023: 0.114s (Binder)
2024: 0.798s (Miller)
Sprint
2023: 2.056s (Binder)
2024: 10.421s (Miller)
GP
2023: 5.191s (Binder)
2024: 18.620s (Binder)
KTM's braking strengths helped the RC16 be competitive through the first two sectors, and allowed Binder and Miller - at least until the latter crashed on Sunday - to put on effective defensive performances. But neither the burst of pace nor longevity further into the race distance were there.
And beyond the all-conquering Ducati GP24s clearly being much stronger, the KTM was at best level with Aprilia - which picked up a sprint podium in Aleix Espargaro's hands at a track that still isn't the easiest fit for the RS-GP - and couldn't live with last year's Ducati in Marc Marquez's hands.
Binder fell prey to one of Marquez's more extravagant overtakes on Sunday, surrendering position through the fast left-hander Turn 6.
It looked like a surprise move - but Binder wasn't necessarily surprised.
"I knew if anyone was going to pass me, it was going to be into [Turn] 6 or 7,” he explained. “Because with the amount of spinning through 5, I was going through there like a snail.
"When he passed me, the next lap I could see he pulled a couple of tenths just in that one corner. I probably surprised him by how slowly I was going around there to be honest!"
WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ACOSTA?
To add insult to injury, it was a thoroughly scuffed weekend for the brand's next big thing Pedro Acosta, whose three crashes on Friday ended up setting the tone for the sessions to come.
It is too early to speak of Acosta regressing, but at the very least he does seem to have a tougher time balancing risk and reward in KTM's new competitive reality than his future works team-mate Binder.
It was Acosta flying the flag for the project at the start of the season, when the new Ducatis were still hobbled by vibration issues and thus at least within reach, but it's Binder who has come to the fore of late as KTM's prospects have declined.
Acosta, for his part, did say that the Friday crashes had "zero" impact on his confidence going forward in the weekend, because of their specific nature being unrelated to any kind of pushing over the limit.
"The first crash was cold tyre," he said, pointing to this weekend's (harder) hard front that was roundly rejected by the grid on Saturday and Sunday.
"The second one was because I was stupid and I continued riding, and to be honest I didn't expect that the centre [of the front tyre] would be cold like this - but it was a crash that should not happen.
"And the third one was an outlap, H [hard] tyre again."
He wasn't alone in crashing on that tyre and his Sunday was heavily compromised by a technical issue - an acceleration-limiting problem that he couldn't really explain but that does seem eminently believable given his Sunday performance was out of line with the rest of the weekend.
Still, even the rest of the weekend wasn't particularly good - which in KTM's current realities means fighting for single-digit points at best.
"We know from before," said Acosta of his manufacturer's struggles when asked about the significance of such a poor performance at its home race.
"But sometimes it needs to hurt to learn. You need to really [feel] pain.
"And I think from this GP, everyone from around KTM, riders and mechanics, everyone, goes [home] with a punch in the chest, like 'ah'.
"And this one it's going to be difficult to take it out - same as last year, when I lost [the win in Austria] versus [Celestino] Vietti in Moto2. It was tough to… I will not say recognise, but it was tough to accept. This one is going to be tough [to accept], for sure.
"But the good thing is that we see that we have 120% of trust, push, and everything from the bosses, from the whole KTM group."
Acosta said he saw how much KTM was prioritising MotoGP success - while already having motocross, Moto3 and Moto2 "under control" - and insisted that because of this “sooner or later we will be faster".
ANOTHER MID-SEASON STEP?
It might be sooner rather than later that KTM is faster - though it might not be by as much as everyone at KTM would like it to be.
Test rider Pol Espargaro debuted a newer version of the bike during the weekend, having already extensively tested it at the track in the lead-up to the Austrian GP.
Running by himself, Espargaro went below what was then the lap record. He never quite matched that laptime in the weekend itself - hamstrung by race weekend rustiness and a spate of technical issues that left him with just one functional bike instead of two for Saturday and Sunday - but felt the evidence was robust that the newer RC16 had proven itself as a step forward.
"There are some signals. For example, in one lap, for sure it's better. Faster," he insisted. "This weekend, in one lap, I had it in my hands to be the fastest. So already there, it's something interesting. Counting that Brad, Jack, Augusto [Fernandez] and Pedro - they should be at least three tenths faster than me.
"So it means that the bike has a good performance when the grip is nice.
"When the grip drops, then we face some problems that we didn't expect. But even like that, we had very good acceleration when the bike was straight, for example, that other guys were struggling a lot [with].
"We had other negatives but I am pleased with the results and now we move on. Dani [Pedrosa] is going to test in Misano and we keep developing the bike for the guys."
Last year, a mid-season introduction of the carbon chassis breathed new life into KTM's campaign - though ultimately didn't make it a regular frontrunner.
This year, it would take an even bigger step to do that, which seems out of the question - and less important, in any case, than KTM recovering the ground it has lost in time for the start of 2025.
