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In autumn 2024 the news about the financial state of Pierer Mobility AG with the brands KTM, Husqvarna and GASGAS became bleaker from week to week. Finally on November 29th insolvency proceedings under its own responsibility (due to debts amounting to at least 1.8 billion euros) emerged, and World Championship promoter Dorna, teams, GP organizers and fans worried about the continued existence of the Moto3 World Championship. Because no fewer than 16 of the 26 participants were to take part in this 250 cc single-cylinder four-stroke World Championship with the 60 hp RC4 racing machines from Austria.
But restructuring administrator Peter Vogl already hinted on December 20th, 2024 that he intended to continue to allow KTM AG's slimmed-down motorsport program despite the enormous liabilities when it restarted after February 25th, because the "Ready to Race" strategy contributed significantly to KTM's success and made the company the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Europe.
"We delivered all the motorcycles and all the material to our teams in time for the pre-season tests," reports Pit Beirer, KTM Motorsport Director. "For the coming season, we have three aces like Piqueras, Rueda and Muñoz who finished the World Championship in the top 8 last year, while four riders from the top eight will compete in Moto2 in 2025. So we certainly have a few promising contenders for victory in the field. And the interesting thing about the Moto3 is that every year new names appear at the front that nobody has expected or talked about before. I'm excited to see what all the young talents can achieve. We are definitely looking forward to extremely cool fights in this category. I think that we may not have any guarantees of victory on our motorcycles, but we certainly have guarantees of podium finishes", Beirer says.
The Pierer Group has won 7 of the 13 Moto3 World Championships so far, Honda 6. Did KTM have to make financial concessions regarding the Moto3 project because of the insolvency proceedings? Do the factory-supported teams like the Aspar CFMOTO team as well as Red Bull KTM Ajo and Red Bull KTM Tech3 now have to pay for all the material themselves?
"There are no more discounts, the teams have to buy their material", Pit Beirer explained to GPOne.com. "The exit of our brands GASGAS and Husqvarna from the Moto3 and Moto2 classes has of course also contributed to cost reduction. Plus there is another huge factor why the Moto3 budget was able to be reduced significantly. We developed and delivered completely new motorcycles a year ago. Even though the motorcycles are paid for by the teams, the effort involved in the development was enormous. The Moto3 KTM bikes for all the GP riders had to be completely built from scratch a year ago. At the same time, we had to deliver all the new spare parts for 2024. Now, however, the 2024 motorcycles will continue to be used unchanged for 2025 and 2026. Now it is basically about filling the service trucks cleanly with material and continuously offering customers the necessary spare parts during the season. But we save ourselves the effort of having to bring 16 new motorcycles into the paddock at the start of the season."
The Chinese Pierer partner CFMOTO financed the German Prüstel team in 2022 and 2023, then in 2024 KTM allied it with the Aspar team - and David Alonso gave the Chinese their first world championship title straight away. CFMOTO continues to use the KTM RC4 motorcycles in Moto3. The Chinese are the main sponsor of Aspar with a reported sum of 1.5 million euros, with the Moto2 team using Kalex bikes.
"The Aspar project continues to run under the CFMOTO flag," confirms Beirer. "The team is financed by CFMOTO and other sponsors. We are not involved as an investor. That's why we were able to reduce the costs in the Moto3 World Championship to a reasonable level."
