How KTM has ended up with an embarrassment of MotoGP riches

There are few brands in motorsport in any form throughout history that have been as successful across multiple disciplines as KTM. It’s won more championships on two wheels than I’ve had hot dinners.

The bulk of its success has come off-road. KTM has been the all-conquering force in motocross and Enduro racing since it won its first title in the former category in 1974 with Russian racer – and later a Major of the Soviet Army – Guennady Moisseev in the 250cc class. This marked the first of 96 world titles for KTM in the MXGP’s various classes, while it would win 114 in Enduro. You can also add 19-successive wins in the Dakar Rally on two wheels for KTM.

With that kind of off-road success, it was only a matter of time before KTM started competing in the grand prix road racing scene. Entering the 125cc world championship from 2003 to 2009, and the 250cc class from 2005 to 2009, KTM didn’t win the titles that had almost become its right in motorcycle racing.

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After a two-year hiatus, KTM returned with a vengeance when the 125cc class with consigned to the history books and the 250cc single-cylinder four-stroke Moto3 era came to be in 2012. KTM won the title with Ajo Motorsport’s Sandro Cortese, before Maverick Vinales took his Calvo Team KTM to the 2013 title.

Jack Miller was runner-up for Ajo Motorsport on a KTM in 2014, likewise Miguel Oliveira in 2015, with Brad Binder dominating Moto3 in 2016 to claim KTM’s third title in the class. For 2017 it built chassis for the Moto2 class, with Oliveira finishing third with Ajo Motorsport having won the final three races. He would finish runner-up in the class in 2018, while Binder would narrowly miss the title in 2019 – the final year of the KTM chassis in Moto2.

This all took place in the background to KTM’s big move to MotoGP in 2017, a project helmed by Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith. Qualifying for the first race of 2017 over three seconds off the pace, inside four years KTM would become grand prix winners in the premier class – no small feat when you consider it’s the only marque using a steel trellis chassis (a KTM staple) and WP suspension. More notably, those wins came at the hands of Oliveira and Binder, the latter chosen to take the ousted Johann Zarco’s factory seat for his debut 2020 campaign.

In 2007, the Red Bull Rookies Cup – a series aimed at propelling young talent onto the grand prix scene - was established. KTM has forever supplied the machinery, the series acting as the start of a ladder for riders it deems worthy to now move through the ranks all the way to MotoGP with the brand.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo Qatar Moto3 2018.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Both Oliveira and Binder are just two of the many who have come through the series, though both were the first to go through Rookies Cup with KTM, race in Moto3 and Moto2 with KTM before stepping up to MotoGP with it.

“We created something where we create talent for the whole paddock because there is maybe even more young talented riders in our Red Bull Rookies Cup than we could ever use on a KTM in the future,” KTM Motorsport boss Pit Beirer tells Autosport. “But it’s nice to pass all these guys and see their faces when they were with us really young. So it’s part of how we want to do racing. It was not proven until some months ago that it could work in this paddock here, but now we even went a step further and built a machine that even younger riders can enter the sport a little bit cheaper in the NTC [Northern Talent Cup].”

Autosport sat down with Beirer during a German GP weekend in which 76 riders across the NTC and in the grand prix classes were on KTM machinery. This doesn’t include the Ajo Motorsport duo Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez in Moto2, as they race Kalex chassis following KTM’s withdrawal from the class at the end of 2019 (though its name still adorns the Ajo bikes).

That’s a hell of a display of passion for motorcycle racing – albeit one that is admittedly easy to have when a great number of those riders are paying for those rides. Nevertheless, it goes a long way to helping you understand just why KTM often becomes a juggernaut in its racing exploits.

"We could save that money and in the moment we need a MotoGP rider we could just add a little bit more money [to sign someone], but I think you then don’t have this strong relationship with your riders"Pit Beirer

“You also have strong people around, like Aki Ajo, like [Tech3 boss] Herve Poncharal, Mike Leitner,” Beirer explains when asked why his manufacturers’ talent scheme seems to be so successful. “Always a strong partner from Red Bull. So, it’s a great group of people and I’m really proud to look on this crew because we started in this paddock as KTM in 2012.

“I was a guest with one bike and a couple of engines on the backdoor of Aki Ajo’s truck. We didn’t even have our own truck coming into this paddock. That Aki is still part of this project makes me proud, and of course that we could make it now a bigger group. I would say we have arrived in the paddock and we enjoy what we are doing.”

That relationship with Aki Ajo – which will continue until at least the end of 2026 – has been a crucial part in the development of KTM’s formidable MotoGP line-up.

Remy Gardner, Red Bull KTM Ajo chequered flag

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

As mentioned, Oliveira and Binder – KTM’s factory team duo for 2021 and 2022 – came through the Finn’s team. In Moto2, Gardner currently leads series rookie Fernandez in the standings and both will step up to MotoGP with Tech3 KTM in 2022. And in Moto3, 16-year-old wunderkind Pedro Acosta has stunned everyone by taking a 48-point lead in the standings after the first nine races of his grand prix career.

Likely to be moved up to Moto2 sooner rather than later, KTM’s immediate future in Oliveira, Binder, Gardner, Fernandez and Acosta looks exceedingly bright. Given Ajo’s knack for talent spotting, having fielded the likes of Marc Marquez and Johann Zarco as well as the current factory KTM lot over the years, KTM will be developing superstars at an almost industrial rate.

“I think because we have a lot of passion for that part, because we invest a couple of million into Red Bull Rookies Cup, Moto3, Moto2,” Beirer notes of KTM’s devotion to young talent. “We could save that money and in the moment we need a MotoGP rider we could just add a little bit more money [to sign someone], but I think you then don’t have this strong relationship with your riders.

“And we learned that in off-road, we had so much passion to grow with a kid. We had this 10-year-old Jorge Prado on a 65cc KTM and he became a motocross world champion many years later. Or we had Marc Coma, who was winning five Dakars for us, riding 15 years for KTM. Now he’s managing director of KTM Spain. So, if we like somebody and you’re part of the family, we want to stick together as long as we can and I think that makes you strong on the difficult days.”

This apparent familial set-up has certainly helped KTM with its riders. But its methods in ensuring it holds onto its best talent aren’t strictly speaking as wholesome. Though yet to be officially announced, Fernandez will step up to MotoGP with Tech3 next year. But initially he didn’t want to, instead exploring the option to join Petronas SRT and ride a Yamaha in 2022.

But already contracted to KTM for 2022, Fernandez – or SRT – would have had to pay somewhere in the region of half a million euros to exercise the young Spaniard from that deal. SRT told Autosport it wouldn’t interfere with his relationship with KTM just get his signature and Fernandez wasn’t willing to wage a war with the orange army. As a result, he’ll stay in the KTM family for at least two more years at Tech3.

The RC16 has won four MotoGP races, the factory-backed Tech3 team responsible for two of those, so it’s not as if Fernandez has lucked out. However, that aggressive obsessiveness over keeping its young talent within its ranks is a fissure that will eventually crack if it’s not careful.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Ajo

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

However, so long as it continues to make its riders feel welcomed and valued, it won’t be a problem.

“I mean, that other manufacturers have interest in our riders is a compliment,” Beirer says. “It looks like we work with the right riders. But then I think we treat the riders - also I hope - quite well, so something dramatic must happen that [means] they really want to leave. So, our way is always to try to make them feel comfortable and then they’ll want to say.

“At least I can say we have a four-time winning MotoGP bike, so I think we can offer them a lot through their career. So, you don’t need to leave us if you want to go with us. If you don’t want to be here, then of course there are other fantastic manufacturers out there. But I think at the moment we are a really good platform for the young boys.”

KTM’s history in motorsport is a glorious one, victory following it wherever it goes thanks to an ardent passion for what it does and belief in its own ways. Though maybe its methods regarding its young talent have potential underlying flaws, they’ve also ensured it has secured some of the best young riders around.

Before signing his four-year extension with Honda in 2020, Marquez had links to KTM. Perhaps he may one day end up on a KTM, but you get the impression it is more than confident it can produce its own world-beater from within…

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images