Dani Pedrosa’s former long-term crew chief Mike Leitner has joined KTM to work on their ambitious MotoGP project, due to make it’s debut in 2016.

The Austrian, who reportedly split with Pedrosa and Honda after disagreeing with the way some technicians were treated, will work alongside another 20 people developing the RC16.

“It will be an exciting and interesting challenge, as we’re starting from scratch. It is nice to see an Austrian company and an owner like Stefan Pierer to start such a great project. There is not much happening from other factories in the German speaking part of the world. I like challenges and I am happy to be part of it,” he said.