How KTM failed one of its brightest MotoGP prospects

“I’m not going to be here next year, no. What I was told is that I’m not professional enough. No explanation [from KTM]. I have done a lot of the hard yards, I’ve had some pretty tough years, injuries and everything coming back. But yeah, it’s just kind of never seems like it was enough.”

Remy Gardner cut a dejected figure when he sat down with Autosport in Tech3’s hospitality on the eve of the San Marino Grand Prix as he let the world know he had no immediate future in MotoGP.

The Australian – son of 1987 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner – has had a difficult climb up to the premier class. Gardner found little success in Moto3 in his sole campaign on a Mahindra in 2013, but showed signs of promise when he stepped onto a bigger bike in Moto2 the following season.

For 2017 and 2018 he consistently scored points on the uncompetitive Mistral 610 chassis Tech3 insisted on running in the intermediate class before its tie-up with KTM in 2019. Numerous injury problems hindered his progress but a breakout campaign in 2020 aboard a year-old Kalex chassis with the SAG team saw his score his first win in Portugal.

For the following season he was signed by famed king maker Aki Ajo and was brought under KTM’s wing. Engaging in a thrilling duel with team-mate Raul Fernandez, Gardner took the spoils to step up to MotoGP with Tech3 – alongside Fernandez – as the reigning world champion.

But his debut year has been a slog. The RC16 is not a competitive bike right now, and the nature of the class has made the adaptation process harder. Both he and Fernandez have found the going tough, but the latter has a deal to race in MotoGP next year with RNF Aprilia – joining the team he wanted to for 2021 before KTM locked him into a contract to move to Tech3 – while Gardner has been left with limited options.

“I think I tried to adapt the best I could and I think I did do a half decent job,” Gardner assesses when Autosport asks him about the difficulties of riding the KTM. “I mean, if you have a look at some qualifyings and stuff I’m really close to the factory guys. There’s sometimes when they are just gaining down the straights, but that’s about it. In all the corners I’m doing exactly the same as them. So, honestly, I don’t feel like my rookie year has been horrible.”

To his credit, when compared directly with his team-mate, the figures back up Gardner’s claims. Taking a sample from the Qatar GP through to Austria, Gardner has scored four more points than Fernandez with nine versus five. While Fernandez has finished higher in one more race of the nine both were participating in (Fernandez was absent at Portugal and Jerez with injury), Gardner has had the edge in qualifying with a score of nine versus three (Mugello is not included due to the changeable conditions). Taking the average qualifying times, Gardner has been 0.318s quicker than Fernandez across the season.

Gardner has had the edge over KTM Tech3 team-mate Fernandez this season

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

So, how could it be that one has secured himself a two-year deal to continue in MotoGP while the reigning Moto2 champion has been left to evaluate the few-remaining World Superbike options on offer to him?

The actual fallout is complicated. Gardner’s comments on Thursday at Misano about his unprofessionalism being the reason for his ousting from KTM were denied by KTM Motorsport boss Pit Beirer, who isn’t sure who told him that.

“I think that’s just not correct and I don’t want to go into this game now because Remy said obviously some points,” Beirer told motogp.com at Misano. “But I like this boy, Remy is a fantastic guy and we had some great days together, some great success together. I cannot say because he has three responsible managers, this is Herve [Poncharal], the team manager, Jens [Hainbach] the road racing programme and myself. None of us told him this, so I don’t really know who brought it up.”

Gardner further clarified his comments on Saturday at Misano, telling the media that it was KTM’s road racing vice president Jens Haibach who told his manager Paco Sanchez that the Australian was being dropped for not being professional enough.

"The problem is not the small categories or the satellite teams or the factory teams in the small categories. The problem is top management, they are not really human" Paco Sanchez

“Basically, that was what was told to my manager from Jens in Austria,” Gardner said. “He came straight to me after that meeting happened. So, that’s what I got. Again, not really sure their reasoning.”

Gardner said he was informed on the Saturday of the Austrian GP that he was not going to be racing alongside Pol Espargaro at Tech3 in 2023, telling the media at the Red Bull Ring that it not looking likely there was space for him and, more tellingly, “KTM has done it again”.

Beirer refutes this, saying Gardner and his management were informed that the option on the Australian was not taken up back in June. On social media, Gardner’s father Wayne took aim at his son’s manager Sanchez, claiming nobody at KTM wanted to work with him. 

On the Monday night after the Misano round, the Remy also took to social media to defend his manager: "I am very sorry for the words of Wayne Gardner against my manager Paco Sanchez. Paco isn’t responsible for my KTM exit, and I fully trust in his professionalism and honesty. Together we will find a new project to continue enjoying this sport that I love so much."

From Sanchez’s point of view, he says the problem exists at the highest management level within the Mattighofen-based brand.

“They will not talk to me and I will not talk to them because I am not interested in its system,” Sanchez said at Misano. “I’m interested in a system that can support the riders, that can help the riders to grow up, who can understand the riders. I need human people. I think Aki Ajo, Herve [Poncharal, Tech3 team owner] are nice people. The problem is not the small categories or the satellite teams or the factory teams in the small categories. The problem is top management, they are not really human.”

KTM's top management has come under fire from Gardner's team since the split was confirmed

Photo by: Tech 3

KTM avoided scrutiny from the media during the Misano weekend, instead giving its version of events to the Dorna world feed. Beirer concedes KTM is not where it wants to be, but offered hints that Gardner’s version may not be that wide of the mark.

“I feel we need to work on our bike and improve on the bike side and give the riders a better base, and for sure not blame riders for the results we are not having,” Beirer said. “On the other side we need to have people on board who believe in our project and in us and that we can succeed. That for us was a crucial point because we got some information earlier in the season, during the season, which were not a kind of commitment we needed. It’s not about positive comments, we always need to live with the reality, but just commitment and the belief that we can fix it.”

That comment was in response to claims that Gardner was seen as being unprofessional because he – and his manager – had openly criticised the RC16.

Nobody involved in this situation has talked about this, but KTM does have previous when it comes to riders criticising its bike. KTM CEO Stefan Pierer publicly scorned Johann Zarco for his outbursts over the RC16 back in 2019. Criticising bikes has long been a sensitive nerve for manufacturers and many a rider has had their wrists slapped for comments they’ve made. In 2018, Scott Redding got a fine from Aprilia for being outspoken about the competitiveness of the RS-GP.

Whatever the real reason for the Gardner and KTM fallout, what the Austrian marque can’t shy away from is the fact that it made the Australian’s job harder than it should have been.

Gardner’s crew chief Alex Merhand, while experienced at Tech3 as a strategy engineer, hadn’t held the role of crew chief at a MotoGP team before this season. Sanchez believes the freshness of both didn’t help, as a rookie rider needs a firm direction to be pointed in when he gets lost in setting up the bike. Ex-Maverick Vinales crew chief Esteban Garcia holds a role with Tech3 as technical director, so there was a more experienced hand on site to help Gardner more intimately.

Another factor that can’t be overlooked is the restructuring of KTM’s Moto2 project. When it stepped into the intermediate class in 2017 it built a bespoke steel chassis in line with its other racing projects, but scrapped this to run KTM-branded Kalex chassis from 2020.

Gardner has finished in the points on just four occasions so far this season

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira found success on these steel chassis in Moto2, while the former was a Moto3 world champion in 2016 on the steel frame. Binder won a race in his debut season in MotoGP on the KTM in 2020, while Oliveira found solid results in 2019 before winning twice in 2020. Even Iker Lecuona, who also raced the steel KTM chassis in Moto2 for a spell, managed top six results in his brief time in MotoGP before he was replaced by Gardner.

Gardner, by contrast, only rode a steel KTM chassis for two races in Moto3 in 2014 and rode conventional aluminium frames right up until 2022.

“If you look at Miguel and Brad, they’ve really only ridden steel frame chassis from their Moto3 days,” Gardner said when Autosport asked about how crucial KTM’s decision not to have its own chassis in Moto2 from 2020 may have affected his MotoGP adaptation. “So, it’s understandable that they have a better understanding of how to get the best out of them and how they work. Obviously a steel frame chassis, I’ve only ever ridden aluminium frames until this year, in the most complicated class with the most complicated electronics and tyres, and wings and rideheight systems. Definitely a little bit of a disadvantage there is the time to adapt to a different frame. I was doing my best to change my riding style and trying to adapt to the bike.”

"At one stage they were backing me, they did put me in MotoGP. But they just lost faith and something happened" Remy Gardner

And ultimately, through all of this, KTM needed to support Gardner fully, which he feel he did not get: “I wanted to [feel like KTM backed me]. I guess, yeah, at some point they backed me. At one stage they were backing me, they did put me in MotoGP. But they just lost faith and something happened.”

This situation with Gardner does run the risk of KTM losing some top young talents to rival manufacturers. With grand prix racing’s hottest property Pedro Acosta on its books at the moment and almost certain to come to MotoGP in 2024, KTM must work on its optics.

For now, Gardner will see out what could well be his only season in MotoGP the best he can with an attitude of giving results to make sure “the right people will have egg on their face”.

Gardner's future remains unclear after 2022

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images