There is no doubt that the KTM crisis is something that has the entire motorcycle sector pending. One of the largest manufacturers in the world declares bankruptcy, with a debt close to 3 billion euros. At the same time, it confirms a motorcycle stock close to 150,000 units, and we are all awaiting developments.
There is a lot at stake right now for thousands of people who make up the KTM family, and perhaps it may even seem cold to talk about its competition department and how this whole situation will affect the MotoGP project.
The truth is that there are small touches that the pilots themselves, such as Pedro Acosta, have already advanced after the Misano test in September, in which they said that they had reduced the pace. It was also heard that Red Bull would take over the project when the time came, but there is no official or verified information that speaks about the future of the competition department.
We must think that the KTM project in MotoGP is the culmination, the spearhead of KTM in competition, but we must not lose sight of the fact that in a certain way it is also a business. On the one hand, it receives financial support from the sponsors, on the other it does so from the organizers by distributing part of the image rights and a third part is the way in which they relate to Tech3, a satellite team that in one way or another should impact in terms of income.
Then there is the Moto3 section where they are suppliers of different equipment and that also represents income that, to a greater or lesser extent, should imply less economic effort that comes directly from the brand. In short: if things were managed in a logical way, the competition department would not depend exclusively on the contribution that the parent company could make or not.
The KTM crisis puts obstacles in the way of competition projects
Does that mean KTM’s MotoGP project is not at risk? No, far from it, but it is a way to go one step beyond the reasoning of “KTM is in crisis, the MotoGP project will be canceled”.
Obviously, when the situation is so critical for the brand it can drag it down, even aesthetically (as happened with Suzuki in MotoGP), perhaps maintaining the competition team if things are not going well business wise can give a feeling of frivolity.
However, we must not lose sight of, as we said, that in addition to competing they are suppliers to many Moto3 teams in addition to MotoGP’s Tech3. To this we must add that KTM has a contract with MotoGP, so its seats also carry some responsibilities.
Even so, what does seem evident is that they will not make as much effort for the moment in the evolution of their motorcycles, although we must not overlook that currently everything related to KTM in racing depends on an independent company derived from the parent company. : KTM Racing GmbH. This means that when the time comes they could be isolated and, in fact, there is information that indicates that this could happen in the near future.
In any case and far from sensationalism, we must wait for the next news not only from KTM Racing but from the parent company where they are working to turn around a complicated situation, and which from the outside could not be foreseen a little over a year ago. .
