After Suzuki’s departure from the MotoGP grid in 2023, finally a new manufacturer will join the list of brands present in the category, the Spanish GasGas , although initially it will only be as a sponsor.
This Friday at noon, at the Red Bull Ring, the CEO of KTM, Stefan Pierer , plans to offer a press conference in which he will talk about the future plans of the Austrian company in the world championship, in addition to making the signing official. by Pol EspargarĂ³, who thus returns to the Mattighofen factory, where he spent four years, after two seasons at Honda.
In addition, Pierer will announce another interesting novelty, and that is that KTM’s satellite team in the World Championship, the French structure Tech3, will be sponsored by the GasGas brand, owned by Pierer Mobility , a company of which it is the largest shareholder.
In 2023, GasGas, a manufacturer founded in Spain and which maintains a large part of its production structure in Terrassa (Barcelona), will be the sponsor and will paint the bikes of Tech, the HervĂ© Poncharal team that is celebrating its fourth season associated with KTM. After the first two years of Red Bull sponsorship, in 2021 the energy drink brand stopped directly supporting the team, which went on to paint its bikes orange.Â
At first, Pierer’s intention was to register GasGas as a manufacturer, even though he competed in MotoGP with KTM machinery. However, the promoter of the championship has declined that possibility, since that would imply complications at the level of agreements within the MSMA.
Finally, the provisional option that has been chosen is to enter as a sponsor and convert Pol EspargarĂ³ , who is from Granollers , just 20 kilometers from Terrassa, headquarters of the factory, into the image driver of the brand.
What is yet to be revealed is who will be the second rider of the Tech3 team, even though everything indicates that the Australian Remy Gardner will follow, which would leave the Spaniard RaĂºl FernĂ¡ndez without a motorcycle within the Austrian structure, and with his hands free to look for your future.