KTM's MotoGP factory team leader Brad Binder believes the manufacturer's performance in the Qatar tests looks a lot worse than it actually was.
The Austrian brand failed to get inside the top 15 with any of its four bikes but Binder believes it's more to do with the track layout than the RC16 and its jockeys.
"I believe things look a lot worse on paper than they are in reality or will be on the race weekend," said Binder, speaking at the track.
"It has been a little bit challenging for us KTMs here. It's a little bit this layout, it doesn't quite suit us too well. But nevertheless we have good ideas and I'm sure we're going to get much closer to the front than we are at the moment.
"We ended up losing today and we had about three more items to try, but they were all positive for our test team so I think we're quite safe to try them over the race weekend.
"It's safe to say we do have a little bit of work to do for sure. But I'm confident we will get it right.
"This time last year, okay I had a strong last day for a one-off lap, but other than that there wasn't much there. I was still quite worried because I was quite slow at almost all the tests and then as soon as we got to Jerez things got better.
"This year I'm definitely going into Qatar a lot more confident and understand the class and bike much better. All in all it's just more of a relaxed feeling."
