There are a good number of issues coming to a head as the Silverstone Grand Prix approaches next Sunday. Right now, in fact, MotoGP is far from being in equilibrium: it still lacks the OK (which many believe is in the home stretch) from the European Commission, for Liberty Media's takeover of Dorna. There is also on the plate the difficult situation of KTM, although by now a first phase is nearing completion with the payment of the missing capital by Bajaj. And the rider market, already simmering, has accelerated with the news of the divorce between Jorge Martin and Aprilia.
Needless to say, the concurrence of the KTM crisis, which it is not 100 percent certain can remain on the track beyond 2026, and the Aprilia crisis are somewhat related.
Actually, the opening of an additional slot among the factory teams may incentivize the handcuffs coming off from Mattighofen...and KTM certainly cannot expect to stay in the game in 2027 with a new bike with only scraps in hand.
MotoGP is thus a bit of a crumbling building, seemingly stable but with cracks that, depending on the skills of those who will get their hands on it, can be consolidated easily or widen.
The risk of KTM exiting is real, although the possibility of an evolution by an investor who wants to keep the Ready To Race spirit, might even be desirable, leaving one brand in the field as an engine supplier. A bit like what happens in F1, in short.
The alternative - doing without four motorcycles on the lineup-is an absolute no-brainer and may only be avoided with the entry of a new partner. BMW? This has been talked about for ages, but apart from the Munich-based manufacturer's presence in Superbike, to enter MotoGP with an 'M' bike the manufacturer would already have to begin development.
Needless to say, the combination of these possibilities hints at a delay in the development of MotoGP, which so far has been too self-bound and absolutely self-referential. Suffice to say that the IRTA president, the very talented Hervé Poncharal, boss of the Tech 3 team, a team that even has its roots in the 250 class, has been in office continuously for 20 years!
At Silverstone, the French manager, by his own decision, will hand over to Lucio Cecchinello, owner of the LCR Honda team, another long-time star, former racer and talent scout.
The question we are asking is why - even though IRTA is now a different entity from the association founded in 1986 - has it remained immobile for so long?
The answer is that it was initially pitted against the organizers; today it is part of them.
In the 1980s, in fact, many teams in MotoGP (then run by the FIM) felt the need to have more representation and a voice in the technical, regulatory and commercial decisions of the championship.
Today, however, IRTA, which was created precisely to unite the teams and grant them a more active role in the management of MotoGP, is more of a counterbalance to Dorna, which is entrusted with managing the economic dividends and some organizational aspects. And while it is true that it also organizes official tests and collaborates in the definition of the calendar and rules together with MSMA, it is undeniable that it is totally dependent on the MotoGP organizer.
Until now MotoGP has been a closed circle and only recently have new players arrived from other worlds. Think of Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia Racing, with automotive DNA as a former Ferrari employee, or Dan Rossomondo, a former NBA employee, but at least so far, this has not resulted in new balances.
Something, however, is changing, and fast. What happened last year, the move of, for example, Romano Albesiano from Aprilia to Honda or even, previously, Fabiano Sterlacchini from Ducati to KTM and then to Aprilia, or Max Bartolini, from Ducati to Yamaha, was unthinkable in the 1980s. And it was able to happen because, unlike F1 where these shifts have been happening for years, no one thought to inflict on the designers, a gardening period to avoid too rapid a transfer of technical information.
There is little to add: there are too few managers to accompany MotoGP and this results in stagnation. A stagnation, however, that by now we have come to realize is not working...but the gears are moving too slowly because they lack both the oil to lubricate them, that is, the money which, as a consequence, brings a lack of resources to pay for professional expertise.
So MotoGP is going to have to grow, which is inevitable if it is to continue to assert itself in a reality in which the supply of entertainment has increased exponentially, without having all the necessary skills. It will have to find them, and in a short time, while having to deal with those critical issues we were exposing at the beginning with, in addition, a rider market that is absolutely incandescent: Marini, Morbidelli, Acosta, Bastianini, Miller, Zarco are all looking for new solutions or better rides or confirmations. The risk is that those with the greatest economic potential may strengthen themselves at the expense of the weakest. But when the weak are official manufacturers, their very survival or permanence in the championship is at risk.
Lately, it has been a constant flurry of new rules to manage rider behavior on the track, which have somewhat altered the spectacle. Not always for the better. But it contrasts with an almost total absence of management rules among manufacturers, satellite teams, and managers. We have seen this with the technical regulations, where greater inventiveness corresponds to greater performance, as well as on the sporting/contractual side, where no one seems to care about the concept of stability.