KTM's MotoGP boss Pit Beirer has revealed that his firm worked on making the RC16 easier to ride and moved it away from the monster on which Pol Espargaro 'risked his life' to try and win.

Beirer admitted to looking at Yamaha and Suzuki for ways to improve the rideability of the bike and make it turn in a U more than the V required by the 2019 bike.

"If you’re watching the class, of course you look how the other bikes are working. You could see that the Yamaha and the Suzuki are easy to ride, and then you have the engine strengths on the other two brand," Beirer told bikesportnews.com.

"So, you want to combine. You want to have all. The riders want to have the strongest engine and the most rideable bike. To find that compromise, if somebody will have the key it would be the value of gold.

"We knew maybe with the engine this was maybe the strongest part of our project right from the beginning, but sooner or later this means nothing if you cannot turn and if you cannot bring the power on the ground.

"So there we were looking over to Suzuki and Yamaha and try to go that way and make the bike more rideable and easier to use. I think that the best measurement you get when a rookie comes on your bike, what’s happening in the first weeks, how easy he can adapt and how easy he can ride the bike.

"There we made a huge step from 2019 to 2020 with this new bike. The bike was just more rideable and easier to ride for also a rider not so experienced. People always said before KTM is always so good because Pol Espargaro is risking his life every day on that bike, and he puts in everything.

"That was right for a period, but I think going into 2020 we made a huge step and this was proven by Miguel that the bike was more rideable. If you want to succeed in long-term then you need to have a bike which is easy to ride and still has a lot of power."