No matter who you are, MotoGP is a gauntlet of epic proportions. You could have millions for R&D, excellent riders who've been racing since inception, and all the technical wunderkind that Germany could produce, and even with all those, you could still end up like where Honda is right now.
Up a creek.
But when you lose one or more of those variables, you're starting off on worse footing. As is the case with KTM, as after the brand declared insolvency, those managing its debt stated that it would be forced to leave the sport at the end of the year. That the funds to support a top-tier racing team just weren't available any longer. And while the Austrian manufacturer has put on a brave, sometimes naively hopeful, face, it can't escape the realities of funding a MotoGP team.
The writing remains on the wall, KTM will have to leave the sport and leave it soon. But in a recently interview, the brand's new CEO stated that while the upcoming regulation changes will likely have something to do with their continued participation, the bigger factor is finding a partner for the biggest show in two-wheeled racing.
Someone with deep pockets.
"Ready to Race will remain the core of everything we do,” stated Gottfried Neumeister to Cycle World, adding, "Motorsport is a key part of our DNA. There is no question mark around our engagement in motorsport. Cutting back on racing is an obvious option but the ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ mantra worked well for KTM for decades. We’re not known for selling the most comfortable or quietest motorcycles in the world, we’re known for extreme motorcycles. You can fulfil things on a KTM that you cannot fulfil on any other bike."
However, Neumeister then stated "I am asked: Will we continue in MotoGP? How important is it? I think no supplier can currently answer that. It will depend on the new regulations for 2027." Likewise, it'll depend on financials, such as implementing a Formula 1-style cost cap, with Neumeister saying, "In Formula 1 there was a cost cap, which helped all teams and also smaller teams to be competing. That’s important. So is a Concorde Agreement: how you distribute the income for that series towards suppliers. Once you know how the setup will be, you can really make a decision."
But a Concorde Agreement ain't something that can just materialize out of thin air. And while there's been talk about such an agreement in recent months, nothing has been confirmed. And Dorna, the current managing body of MotoGP, and which will remain a participant in the sport's management even after Liberty Media fully takes over, isn't too thrilled about the manufacturers banding together to get a bigger piece of the pie—the Ezpeleta family retains an Eccelestone-like iron grip on the sport.
It's just after that inn which Neumeister drops he's open to hearing partnership plans, saying, "But we will have to see what the new rules and regulations are to see if it makes sense to continue or not. We have to fulfil this answer with our own business plan. It has to make sense for our whole company. Staying in MotoGP because the equity value of the team is increasing shouldn’t be the reason. It has to make sense of our own marketing and research purposes. Partnering with someone might be an option. I’m open to options."
Who those partners could be is anyone's guess, as they'd need deep pockets to fund the team. Likewise, based on the insolvency manager's statements about KTM's MotoGP future, as well as Bajaj declining to state on the record whether they'd continue funding the brand's racing project going forward, I'm not sure it's even in Neumeister's hands to decide one way or another.
As with all of KTM's recent news, a lot is still up in the air, as the company is still trying to figure out what's next, how it will continue to do business, and whether or not it can continue certain projects going forward. If the last 12 months felt chaotic for the brand, it's still very much ongoing. I mean, look at its "sales" win...
