Two years ago the former top Ducati MotoGP engineer Fabiano Sterlacchini was hired by the Pierer Mobility Group (KTM, GASGAS, Husqvarna Motorcycles) and presented as the new Head of Technology MotoGP. The plan of KTM was to speed up the development of the KTM RC16 which entered the premier class first time in 2017.
Two days ago at the German GP at the Sachsenring GPOne.com first time heard rumours about Sterlacchini leaving his position at KTM Factory Racing in Munderfing in Upper Austria.
In the meantime we have received the confirmation: KTM has not renewed the two year contract of Sterlacchini who was supposed to set new directions for the Austrian company in order to fight for the MotoGP word title.
Sterlacchini won the battle against long time Red Bull KTM team manager Mike Leitner in 2022, the former 125 cc GP rider and Crew Chief for Dani Pedrosa at Honda for nine year had to quit his position at the end of 2022. Leitner was moved into another position at the end of 2022, Francesco Guidotti took over his position after many years with Pramac Ducati.
KTM had won five MotoGP races by the time Sterlacchini arrived and finished second in the constructor’s championship in 2023 and fourth in the riders championship last year with Brad Binder.
But the main goals were never achieved. Brad Binder has not won a race since Spielberg in the rain of 2021 and KTM has not scored a top place on the podium since Miguel Oliveira left after winning two GP’s in 2022.
KTM Motorsport director Pit Beirer would not comment on the news of Sterlacchini leaving KTM when asked by GPOne.com. "He became homesick", Beirer mentioned Beirer mentioned when asked by GPOne at the German GP thursday. when asked by GPOne at the German GP thursday.
The facts are on the table: Binder has never felt at home on the 2024 factory KTM and Jack Miller started strong after arriving from Ducati in 2023 but never found the strength the Australian GP winner and Red Bull KTM were hoping for within one and a half years. Now Miller was not offered a new KTM contract and will possibly join Gresini Ducati Racing in 2025.
While also Augusto Fernández was not able to accomplish the results he had hoped for after winning the Moto2 world championship for Red Bull KTM Ajo in 2022 and scoring a great 4th place at the French GP in 2023 only the amazing MotoGP Rookie Pedro Acosta was able to fight for top positions on a regular basis in 2024.
"We have 13 races remaining and need to find technical solutions which will help our riders to achieve better results during the second and third part of the season", Pit Beirer mentioned after the Mugello GP for weeks ago.
"Don’t change horses in midstream", former US president Abraham Lincoln said during the civil war because he wanted to be re-elected and told the voters it would be foolish to change leaders in the middle of such a turbulent time.
But Stefan Pierer, Chairman of board of directors at the Pierer Group, is not spending around 70 million Euros a year for GP racing without having a chance to fight for the MotoGP world title which was already the goal after Pol Espargaró finished 5th overall in the MotoGP overall standings – only 4 points behind third placed Alex Rins in 2020.
KTM finished second in the constructor’s championship in 2023 and is now fighting for the same position in 2024. But Ducati is still dominating the riders championship with four great Ducati pilots at the top of the rankings.
"Our new MotoGP Technical Director Fabiano Sterlacchini was brave enough to change some things at KTM", Beirer said in October 2022. "Only with guys like him you can reach top positions in MotoGP. We had a weak period in spring 2022 after the Qatar GP and understood we need to change some things and make some steps ahead. At Aragón in 2022 our results improved and we returned to the podium. We shall go ahead with this new style and approach. At some stage we shall be harvesting the fruits."
Red KTM has hired for top riders for the first time for next year. The Factory line up includes Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta, the Red Bull Tech3 team of Hervé Poncharal will show up with GP winners Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini.
Race engineer Alberto Giribuola, who worked at Ducati for Andrea Dovizioso and Enea Bastianini in the past, has joined KTM before the 2023 season and worked as a MotoGP Performance engineer for the Austrian company since then
We can speculate that Giribuola has built a better relationship with the riders than Sterlacchini and will do his best to acchieve top results in 2025 in cooperation with experienced German KTM engineers Kurt Trieb (engine designer) and Sebastian Risse, who acts as Technical Coordinator MotoGP at KTM and covers all the races.
"Fabiano is now our clear auf Leader on the technical side of the MotoGP project", KTM Motorsport Director Pit Beirer explained at the Sepang test in February 2023. "But our orchestra already existed when he arrived. We had proved by winning five races that we can build a winning bike before his arrival. At KTM we have fantastic guys in our racing department. Fabiano did not need to show us how we should be working. But he is an engineer with a huge competence in racing and he is coordinates all necessary tasks and takes his experience to the GP tracks. On the other hand we also have guys in Munderfing who understand what a riders need and what a racing team needs in order to achieve top results at the race tracks."
At Ducati Corse the departure of the former "Track Technical Director" Sterlacchini never made a difference to the performance of the Desmosedici bikes. General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna trusted Davide Barana to take over as Ducati Corse Technical Director, so Sterlacchini preferred to leave. As he runs his own Consulting Company in civil engineering after his departure from Borgo Panigale he worked as a consultant for Ricardo Engineering before KTM hired him.