Image: Supplied.

Spanish veteran Dani Pedrosa has signed with KTM to be its lead factory test rider ahead of the 2019 season, in which he will depart Repsol Honda after retiring from full-time competition.

Pedrosa, 33, will be an integral part of the Red Bull KTM project for 2019 and 2020, a key influence in the four factory bikes that will be in MotoGP.

“To have a rider of Dani’s skill and experience as part of our MotoGP project is another strong sign that we are moving in the right direction and we are still pushing as hard as we can,” KTM motorsports director Pit Beirer stated.

“We have seen how competitive MotoGP is this year and how fractions of a second can sometimes hide real progress and valuable lessons. We hope – and we are very excited – that Dani’s input alongside Mika Kallio and feeding into the two teams we’ll have on the grid next year will really help to close the gap even further.

“I think we can feel very optimistic about our possibilities for the upcoming seasons. I’d like to thank the whole crew at the factory, all the strong effort at the races and for all those testing miles as we come close to the end of our second year. Also to Dani, it is great that he believes and trusts in us and what we are doing.”

Pedrosa boasts over 30 MotoGP wins – including more than 50 in all classes exclusively riding Hondas – in addition to three world titles across the grand prix categories. He joins KTM development rider Mika Kallio from next season, however it’s not expected he will make any wildcard appearances.

KTM’s four factory RC16 entries will include Pol Espargaro and Johann Zarco in the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, as well as Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin within the incoming Tech3 operation.