Freddie Spencer, Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan, Alex Crivillé, Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner or Marc Márquez are some of the best riders of the last 40 years in motorcycling history, and all of them have, at least , two things in common: they have been world champions and they did it at the handlebars of a Honda .
For more than three decades, the best drivers on the planet raced at some point in their lives for the brand with the golden wing, and they did so basically for three reasons: first, because it was considered the best team and where everyone wanted run. The second, because Honda managed to weave a spider web with which it controlled young talents when they began to emerge, creating a relationship that ended up taking them to their box if the driver in question confirmed their potential, and there we have close and very clear examples. , like those of Casey Stoner , Dani Pedrosa , Marco Simoncelli or Marc Márquez. And the third reason is because Honda always pays its riders well.
That dominance over the young talent market, however, seems to have changed hands of late, with KTM , building on its successful promotional championship, the Red Bull Rookies Cup , and its partnership in the formation classes with Aki Ajo, he has begun to corner the best young riders today.
The most striking examples, which are not the only ones, are those of Raúl Fernández , who in just three years will have passed through the three categories of the World Championship with KTM; o Pedro Acosta , who leads the Moto3 general classification and has signed a contract with the Austrian brand to ride the next two courses in Moto2 and make the leap to the premier class in 2024, so he will have completed the entire cycle with the orange bikes , from the Rookies Cup to MotoGP, passing through Moto3 and Moto2. A sporting life totally controlled by KTM at only 17 years old.
Acosta and Fernández are just the tip of the iceberg of KTM’s emerging dominance in the young talent market, cases to which Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder, Remy Gardner and Iker Lecuona can be added.
It is not the only difference that KTM makes with Honda in its new dominance of the young rider market. Raúl Fernández made it very clear before signing the renewal with the Austrian brand that he wanted to ride with Yamaha and when he saw that they were not going to allow it, he tried to force himself to stay one more year in Moto2. KTM closed down and forced him to go up to Tech3 in 2022. Something similar happened with Gardner, whose agent was negotiating with several teams to make the jump to MotoGP in 2022, but on the Mugello weekend, without prior notice, KTM presented him with a contract to race in Tech3, an offer that he had to take in that very moment or they were not going to present her again. Rem signed.
KTM protects itself from the “blows” of its rivals
The hardening of the strategy of ‘tying down’ young riders with leonine contracts is preceded by some cases that hurt the constructor, such as the signing of Pol Espargaró by Honda, or Jorge Martín by Ducati, both last year, a especially the latter case, which immediately tightened the policy of contracts with young riders.
In KTM those maneuvers hurt and now they try to protect themselves. “We have established a bond with the boys. We call it the ‘ MotoGP Academy’ internally. We learned it well in off road sports and carried it over to track racing. But, of course, it’s not nice when the competition hits your youngsters”, said Pit Beirer , executive of the brand last August, when asked about his pair of aces in Moto2.
“What they are doing in Moto2 is really amazing. We are a little better than the others. It is a compliment to the work with young people that makes us proud”, he pointed out. “But if the competition hits you later, it’s not so much fun anymore,” insisted Beirer, who, however, is still threatened in his talent control policies. “Perhaps at some point it will develop in the direction of football, where huge sums of money are offered.”
It was not for money that Pol Espargaró wanted to go to Honda, where he always wanted to race, or Jorge Martín to Ducati, the team of his dreams. And it is precisely the Italian manufacturer who has also implemented a new transfer policy based on the advantage of having six bikes on the grid, which next year will be eight.
Having so many seats for Ducati supposes two clear advantages, one for the development of the motorcycle, and the other being able to have many places in which to place young talents, such as Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia, or the promising Enea Bastianini and the aforementioned Martin.
At Borgo Panigale they have left behind the time when they offered real millions to established drivers, such as Valentino Rossi in 2011 or Jorge Lorenzo in 2017, to now give way to a much more austere philosophy, in which the desire of the drivers to run for the brand on economic profit. The Desmosedici has become a motorcycle with which almost all its riders can aspire to win or, at least, fight for podiums and that is a great claim.
Control of the market for young talent is such a succulent cake that even Yamaha , one of the most immovable brands in MotoGP, has reacted to the new map that is looming, getting involved in a project for the Moto2 World Championship next year. In the house of Iwata they are aware that the open market for pilots is increasingly difficult and expensive, and the solution lies in ‘hunting’ the young promises in full gestation.
Let’s see how far these young people go, they wonder at Honda
And how does Honda fit into this new map of control of the young rider market? Since the arrival in 2013 of Marc Márquez from Moto2, the winged brand has not incorporated any young rider. Perhaps having one of the best drivers in history has caused them to neglect the young market.
“No, not really. I think that Honda, if you look at the history of the brand, has always had the best riders. But for a driver to go to a brand, it is not that he is forced, he must also want to go”, explains Alberto Puig , Team Manager of HRC in conversation with Motorsport.com .
However, right now KTM has an arsenal of talented riders with an enviable future, such as Raúl Fernández, Pedro Acosta or Remy Gardner.
“Honda has had the best drivers for many years, not just because, it will be for something, for many reasons. At this moment, I insist, I think we have the best driver and the generation of riders that you say is now coming up, they are still, in my opinion, too young to really see how far they can go. Today it is very fashionable to see a pilot and (higher it). Honda has never done this, we have never signed kids for years to come”, reasons Puig, who has, however, directed promotion cups in the past, such as the Movistar Activa Cup from which Dani Pedrosa came out, or more recently the Asia Talent Cup .
“If a driver is good and grows, he decides where he wants to go. Today it is true that the policies that KTM is making, for example, are very worthy. They have a promotion cup and a lot of good drivers that come out of it. They catch them and put them in their teams. But you don’t have to anticipate, you have to see who wins and how much you win. Ducati has a bike that everyone says is fantastic, but the last World Championship was won by Stoner a long time ago (2007)”, continues the Spaniard.
“The KTM youth academy is very good. It is already competing as a factory and in recent years it has taken a step forward. Now it remains to be seen how far it goes. Signing the best drivers does not guarantee you win”, says Puig,
Has KTM, and to a lesser extent Ducati, wrested control over young talent from Honda? Apparently it is. Now all that remains is for that domain to be reflected in world championships.
(Click on this link or on the image to see all the Repsol Honda bikes and riders in 500/MotoGP)
