Aki Ajo fulfilled his dreams shortly after his 56th birthday. The famous talent scout has finally arrived in the premier class after several failed attempts and efforts.
Over the past 15 years, Aki Ajo has had many of today's best motorcycle racers under his wing: from Marc Márquez to Johann Zarco, as well as Jorge Martin, Rául Fernández, and Pedro Acosta. Aki Ajo is a tireless and passionate team owner and talent scout. He created a large number of GP winners and world champions, comparable only to Jorge “Aspar” Martinez. He was a racer himself in his younger years and still enjoys racing on ice in his home country during freezing cold winters.
Aki Ajo only participated in one GP, at the Salzburgring, but he didn't make it into the points zone. Instead, his son Niklas managed a fifth place in the Moto3 World Championship round at Mugello in 2014 and a sixth place in Jerez in 2013. Bur Niklas has long since ended his career after five GPs (2011 to 2015). He initially managed the Red Bull KTM Ajo Junior World Championship team with Deniz and Can Öncü for his stern dad Aki and later also took on crew chief duties within the GP team.
The Ajo Motorsport Team entered the 125cc World Championship in 2001 and won its first World Championship titles with Mike di Meglio (2008, on a Derbi) and Marc Márquez (2010, also on a Derbi).
Since the first Moto3 World Championship season in 2012, Ajo Motorsport has been a reliable and successful pillar for KTM and Red Bull in the new 250cc single-cylinder four-stroke class in the junior categories of the Moto3 and then the Moto2. Ajo has prepared numerous riders for the premier class from the Red Bull Rookies Cup in his GP training school, such as Miller, Oliveira, Binder, and Acosta.
But the relationship between Aki Ajo and KTM somehow became uncertain some time ago. Specifically, during the 2003 season, Ajo had signed on his fellow countryman, Mika Kallio, but Mika left the Red Bull KTM 125 team in August 2003, despite a valid contract with Ajo after the Austrians parted ways with World Champion Arnaud Vincent.
But this incident was long forgotten by the time KTM started looking for a promising team partner for the 2012 Moto3 World Championship. While most of the top teams opted for Honda, after careful consideration, Aki Ajo put his trust in KTM, which was labeled an off-road company at the time, but wanted to finally gain a foothold in road racing with the well-known slogan “Ready to Race” after winning Cross World Championship titles and the Dakar Rally. In fact, after two 3rd places in Lusail and Jerez, Sandro Cortese took the world championship lead for KTM, riding the Red Bull Ajo KTM, for the first time in 2012, with his victory in Estoril. He then went on to clinch the title by a clear margin of 325: 214 points ahead of Luis Salom (Kalex KTM).
When KTM's Stefan Pierer announced on July 31st, 2014 that they were going to enter the 2017 MotoGP World Championship, the original plan was to have the MotoGP racing team managed as a satellite team by Aki Ajo.
In the end, however, KTM decided against this partnership in the premier class. Following the example of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Ducati, they decided to take the reins and entirely take the responsibility in their own hands, debutting as the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team, with Dani Pedrosa, former Honda Crew Chief Mike Leiter as Team Manager, and riders Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith. “Our experience is that we've only been successful in the most prestigious racing series only when we used a real factory team, and all the important decisions were made in Austria,” KTM Motorsport Director Pit Beirer explained.
Aki Ajo made no great secret of the fact that he felt perfectly capable of leading a MotoGP team for KTM. After all, his rivals Fausto Gresini, Lucio Cecchinello, Sito Pons, and Hervé Poncharal had also become renowned MotoGP team owners after their first experiences in the two lower world championship classes, while Ajo only had a faint smile for other MotoGP team owners, such as Paul Bird, Karel Abraham Senior, and Forward's Giovanni Cuzari.
But Aki Ajo concentrated on his core business, winning one world championship title after another in the Moto3 and Moto2 classes, regularly provided talented riders for the Red Bull KTM MotoGP factory team. From Oliveira (five MotoGP victories with KTM) to Binder (two MotoGP victories with KTM), and Acosta (four podiums as a rookie in 2024). Only Ajo’s Moto2 rider, Jorge Martin, decided to switch to Ducati after finishing fourth in the 2020 Moto2 World Championship. From today's perspective, it was a far-sighted decision by the current world championship leader and his management.
In June 2023, Aki Ajo once again had high hopes of taking over or founding a MotoGP team, since the Pierer Group suddenly had too many riders under contract for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship: Binder, Miller (who replaced Oliveira), Pol Espargaró, Augusto Fernández, and Pedro Acosta. KTM's Managers Stefan Pierer, Hubert Trunkenpolz, and Pit Beirer spent weeks trying to get two more MotoGP slots from Dorna for a third MotoGP team alongside Red Bull Factory Racing and GASGAS Tech3. At the Assen GP, Aki Ajo hoped for a dream team with his two world champion protégés, Pedro Acosta and Marc Márquez (who was desperate to leave Repsol Honda and would have been a perfect fit for KTM because of the Red Bull sponsor).
But Dorna didn't give them the two vacant starting positions due to Suzuki's withdrawal. KTM's Stefan Pierer showed little interest in Márquez, and the Spanish rider opted for Ducati anyway, while KTM consoled Pol Espargaró with a well-paid test rider deal after he lost his permanent position as a rider for the GASGAS Tech3 team, where a place was needed for two-time World Champion Pedro Acosta.
Stefan Pierer has always made it clear that he won't invest 70 million Euros a year in GP racing simply to be there, but he also wants to become world champion in this category. This goal wasn't reached during the first eight years.
Since Pol Espargaró (KTM) was already 5th in the 2020 World Championship (only 4 points behind third-placed rider Rins), and Brad Binder finished 6th place twice and 4th place in the last three years (but he's now only 6th in the World Championship behind Acosta), something needed to be done at Pierer Mobility.
In 2025, the Red Bull KTM Factory Team will consist of Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta, while GP winners Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini will ride for Red Bull KTM Tech3. These four stars are expecting a winning motorcycle with which they can stand up to Ducati's supremacy (12 wins in 15 races in 2024). That's why better conditions for victories in the MotoGP are now being created in Mattighofen and Munderfing.
Signing on Fabiano Sterlacchini and Francesco Guidotti didn't bring the breakthrough they hoped for after 2022, both in terms of motorcycle development and team management. Jack Miller, MotoGP winner with Honda and Ducati, never adapted to the KTM RC16, and Brad Binder hasn't won a race for more than three years. The RC16 no longer meets his expectations at the limit. Instead, when it comes to Pedro Acosta, there's still the notion that that he's justly been referred to as the new Marc Márquez for years, because he performs miracles even with inferior material.
While German-speaking engineers Wolfgang Felber, Sebastian Risse, and Kurt Trieb are now back in charge of the technical side, Aki Ajo can be confident that he can get the most out of the riders who are in close cooperation with the technicians for Red Bull and KTM. His MotoGP protégés will be Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta, with whom he's already won three world championship titles. The mutual respect is enormous.
The Ducati Desmosedici is currently unbeatable. Every time KTM copied Ducati's innovative ideas with a few months delay, it didn't prove to be effective. Now, new concepts are being tested (like the steel frame at the beginning and, a year ago, the carbon frame) and, thanks to the universally respected Aki Ajo, a fresh breeze will soon be blowing.
The future KTM rider quartet has sufficient talent, ability, and experience. The RC16 obviously also has immense potential, otherwise, rookie Acosta wouldn't have been able to cross the finish line in Mandalika yesterday after 27 laps, only 1.4 seconds behind winner Jorge Martin. After all, KTM and its WP suspension has always been competitive on low-grip tracks.
Ajo Motorsport's World Championship title wins
2008: 125, Mike di Meglio (Derbi)
2010: 125, Marc Márquez (Derbi)
2012: Moto3, Sandro Cortese (KTM)
2015: Moto2, Johann Zarco (Kalex)
2016: Moto2, Johann Zarco (Kalex)
2016: Moto3, Brad Binder (KTM)
2021: Moto3, Pedro Acosta (KTM)
2021: Moto2, Remy Gardner (Kalex)
2022: Moto2, Augusto Fernández (Kalex)
2023: Moto2, Pedro Acosta (Kalex)