In KTM, only Brad Binder has a valid contract beyond the 2024 MotoGP season, which will force the constructor to decide what they want to do in the coming months. Jack Miller was far from his teammate for much of last season, and at the same time, there are young talents knocking on the door – namely Augusto Fernández and Pedro Acosta at the GasGas Tech3 satellite team. And if that wasn’t enough, there may be other attractive riders on the market like Jorge Martín and Marc Márquez.
Francesco Guidotti, team manager of KTM, told MotoGP.com that he would prefer these decisions to be made later in the season, but admitted that it is not possible:
– It’s a kind of pressure that comes a bit too early for everyone. We have to make decisions in the first part of the season and sometimes it’s not the best for the riders and also for us to have to make a decision after a few races. It’s something that everyone would like to change, but we can’t because there are many factors that we have to consider for the choice, at most we have to be ready after the first race of the season to start the new season, so we have to be ready soon.
The Italian explained the reason why choices have to be made in advance: ‘It’s not like a few years ago when we had a real winter break, where we could deal with everything and be prepared in February to go back to the track with the new bikes and new riders. Everything happens very early at the end of the season, so decisions need to be made early during the current season. This is a kind of pressure that, as I said, no one likes’.
