KTM’s plan to convince wary MotoGP riders to stay put
KTM has a fight on its hands to keep its sensational MotoGP talents out of rivals’ grasp – and it’s made clear it’ll go to some pretty extreme lengths
KTM “cannot write down how people should feel” says its head of motorsport Pit Beirer, but it’s going to need to do something to make sure its rising stars feel good as MotoGP heads into a potentially fraught season with rivals likely to be trying to poach KTM’s riders.
Chief among the targets will be 2022 rookie Raul Fernandez, who was already the object of frenzied political games between KTM and Yamaha in 2021 when it looked like there might be a chance for Yamaha to steal away the Moto2 runner-up.
Yet despite overtures from Yamaha that have potentially been already extended to next season, Beirer says KTM will fight hard to keep Fernandez among its ranks – even if he’s not entirely certain it will work.
“It’s something that we cannot write down,” the motocross world championship race winner explained, “how people should feel or how long they should stay with us.
“We are just working very hard. We want to put our heart on the table for our riders and do everything to make them happy.
“Last year was the most successful motorsport season ever for our group, with 21 world titles, so we made quite a lot of riders happy all around the world, in the US and in Europe, in motocross and in rally.
“At Christmas, I was sitting at home looking at the paper, and remembering that each of these titles is difficult. You don’t win a motocross title any easier than another title; there is a lot of effort and manpower behind them.
“Sometimes if a rider wants to leave it’s better to let them leave even if they have a contract, because it’s not healthy to stay.
“With all that passion, we want riders who are on our side, but we cannot hold them forever, but I would like to keep them as long as we can.
“Last night I had dinner with Marvin Musquin, and he has 11 years with us. It’s nice to have these guys with long term relationships with us winning races for us.
“With Raul, there was a lot of talk, but he is a very young guy. He grew up on the track so quickly, but they don’t have a chance to have a normal development like normal young people. Every time they take their helmet off there is a camera or a microphone, and many people asking them questions.
“Out of a relaxed situation, with their heart rate at 180bpm, they get a camera and they say something and boom, that’s a headline.
“Raul is such a nice guy, but he’s very emotional, very hot. It’s our job to convince him that the right thing is to stay with us, that we’re the best place to be.”
That comes after a tense end to last season in particular, as Fernandez and Remy Gardner, with whom he shares the Tech3 MotoGP box in 2022 again, went head-to-head for the Moto2 title.
Fernandez hit out in the aftermath of Gardner’s victory to accuse KTM of favouring the Australian – a situation that Beirer was quick to defuse as KTM unveiled its 2022 line-up and livery this week.
“When you have two fantastic riders going for the same target, there will be some friction,” he insisted.
“This is something we had to learn as a group in many disciplines. If you have champions and they want to win, they try to bring the team to their side, but we as a team or a manufacturer, we just try to help all of these boys; they are like our children, and in the end, they just need to fight it out on track.
“I think that the best thing to do in that moment was to not comment on anything and let it calm down, because the boys had put so much stress on themselves.
“Of course, when you can win a championship, one guy is super happy and another is not, and in that moment of course he is not happy.
“This is clear, but I can confirm now it’s all good. We were in Austria this week and everyone was sitting at one table, all four riders and the team managers. It won’t be a discussion point. But of course they’re going to have the same problem again, because each of them wants to be the best one.”
And in the spirit of both addressing that issue and the effort to retain these riders beyond their current contract expiration dates at the end of this year, Beirer says there’s only one surefire way forward: to create a totally equal playing field not just across the satellite Tech3 squad but among all four of KTM’s premier class pit boxes.
“We have four riders under contract,” said Beirer of Fernandez, Gardner, Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira, “and we have a long term vision starting with the MotoGP Academy and the Red Bull Rookies. You know this story and you don’t need to repeat it.
“We’ve made another step in the project now, with these young guys coming out of Moto2 and into MotoGP, and we see them as four riders. In the end it’s not as easy as it sounds because you need a huge quantity of material and in the end it’s a huge project to combine our 40 people plus all the engineers in the factory with the Tech3 team.
“They’re used to working quite independently, but from the first day we told Herve [Poncharal, Tech3 team boss] that we would like to make this a strong combination, and open our companies to each other. We looked at his budget, what was missing to fix it, and with an open book philosophy he told us that he trusted us and wanted to be a part of our team.
“We’ve tried to create a platform for four riders, and my perfect scenario one day would be that the riders wouldn’t care if they’re sitting on that side or the other side of the garage. I don’t know if that’s possible to achieve, but we are working really hard for it.
“There is no technical limit for one of the four riders, and even in the future there might be one day a part that we only have one of, and the best guy from the four will have it first. We are closer than ever.”
That’s something KTM has to be keenly aware of given that the next top level talent due to arrive in MotoGP is currently contracted to the team, in the shape of rookie Moto3 champion Pedro Acosta.
Dominating the class in his first year in 2021 and set to join Moto2 in 2022, it won’t be long before he too comes looking for a MotoGP seat – with the pressure very much on Beirer’s team to make him consider staying with KTM.
“This is the luxury problem we have,” Beirer laughed of the excess of talent. “We’ve done so much junior work that we grow up young riders, and we get a big compliment that other factories want them too. Every time you sign a new contract it is a test.
“The first payback for us is the trust when a rider signs another contract, and most of these guys around us, all four MotoGP riders on our bikes, they’ve all already signed a second or third contract with us. We didn’t force them to do it, they did it. With Pedro it’s the same.
“He’s so young and he’s the super talent – of course others want him. I don’t want to lie to you and I don’t know exactly how long his contract is, but that’s not why I want him to stay.
“I want him to think that we are a good partner for him, and I hope he feels the same during this season when the attack comes from other manufacturers.
“But we cannot force him, we can just try to do our best to make him feel comfortable. He’s also a special guy and a nice kid – to have a smile from him in the pits is refreshing, and even during the difficult moments and the ups and downs last year he never lost his smile.”
