KTM riders braced for long road to recovery in MotoGP

While KTM appears to currently be blowing hot and cold during the 2025 MotoGP season, the Austrian manufacturer is weathering the storm, despite the waters regarding KTM’s participation in 2027 remaining constantly murky.

However, it’s clear that the riders of the factory squad aren’t happy.

And, when you look at the riders’ standings, where Pedro Acosta is the highest of all the KTM riders in ninth while Brad Binder lies 14th, the reasons are clear.

Even though Acosta finished third in both the sprint and the grand prix on Tech3’s KTM last year at Aragon, the Spaniard isn’t getting ahead of himself.

“First let’s see how we start the weekend because, okay we made two podiums last year, but Pecco was super-fast in front of me,” explained Acosta.

“We decided to follow them [Francesco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez] but to be honest if we can make a race like last year where we were able to fight for a top five and try to be close to the podium, it could already be a nice result.”

When quizzed on his views of the qualifying performance by KTM, Acosta had an initially sharp response.

“It was a disaster,” Acosta bluntly said. “Somehow everything started already on Friday because when minimum you are in Q2 the worst thing you can make is 12th and OK 12th is not good but you are not 14th, 17th or 19th.”

Brad Binder is slightly more upbeat, but not by much. Along with KTM’s other riders, Binder visited KTM’s headquarters in Mattighofen earlier in the week and managed to get a steer for the engineering future of the team, even if it is a long-term project.

“All of us KTM guys went to Austria and it was really good to go there to do some work for the future,” said Binder. “I did some work for some things coming in the future and it was actually super good because we got the opportunity to see everything behind the scenes and all the projects that they have ongoing there.

“I know they’re working as hard as they can but when you see everything with the timelines with the different components, it all makes perfect sense.”

It’s evident that KTM knows where it lacks performance as Binder acknowledges with KTM’s development programme.

“They put a lot of focus into helping us turn a little bit more,” said Binder. “I think if we can turn a bit better and roll a bit more speed into the corners it will make a big difference.”

It appears that neither Acosta nor Binder think the situation will improve much this year. Is KTM holding out for the new regulations in 2027? A risky move considering its place on the grid isn’t guaranteed.