How KTM has wrestled control of young MotoGP talent from Honda

Freddie Spencer, Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan, Alex Criville, Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez. These names belong to some of the best riders of the last 40 years in the history of motorcycling, and all of them have at least two things in common: they have been world champions and they did it on a Honda.

For more than three decades, the best riders on the planet raced at some point in their lives for Honda, and they did so basically for three reasons.

First, because it was considered the best team and the one everyone wanted to race for. Secondly, because Honda managed to weave a spider's web with which it controlled the young talents when they started to emerge, creating a relationship that ended up bringing them to its box if the rider in question confirmed his potential. Here we have very clear examples in Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Marco Simoncelli and Marquez. As for the third reason, Honda always pays its riders well.

However that dominance of the young talent market seems to have changed hands in recent times, with KTM - building on its successful Red Bull Rookies Cup promotion championship and its training partnership with Aki Ajo in Moto2 and Moto3 - starting to snap up some of the most promising young riders of today.

The most eye-catching examples - but not the only ones - are star Moto2 rookie Raul Fernandez and his Moto3 counterpart Pedro Acosta. 

In stepping up to the premier class in 2022 with Tech3, 20-year-old Fernandez will have ridden in all three categories of the MotoGP world championship with KTM in just three years. Sensational 17-year-old Acosta leads the Moto3 general standings and has signed a contract with the Austrian brand to race in Moto2 for the next two years, before making the jump to the premier class in 2024.

If he does so, he will have completed the whole cycle with the orange bikes from the Rookies Cup to MotoGP, passing through Moto3 and Moto2. A sporting life totally controlled by KTM since the age of 16.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Ajo

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Acosta and Fernandez are just the tip of the iceberg of KTM's emerging dominance in the young talent market. In addition, there are Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder and Remy Gardner.

It is not the only difference between KTM and Honda in this change of trend concerning youngsters.

Fernandez made it clear before signing his renewal that his priority was to sign for Yamaha. After receiving a refusal from KTM, he changed his strategy and made it public that he had decided to stay in Moto2 for 2022. However, KTM closed the door and forced him to move to their satellite team, Tech3, in MotoGP. A similar thing happened with Gardner, whose agent was negotiating with several teams for a move to MotoGP in 2022.

However, on the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, Gardner was presented without warning a contract to ride for Tech3, an offer he had to take on the spot or KTM would not present it to him again. Gardner signed.

"If you look at our history, we have always had the best riders. But for a rider to sign he also has to want to come. Honda has had the best riders for many years, not just because. It must be for a reason, for many reasons" Alberto Puig

As Autosport understands, this sporting policy with contracts full of onerous clauses was tightened following the 'escapes' of Pol Espargaro and Jorge Martin to Honda and Ducati respectively for 2021. Martin's signing to Ducati ended up being a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, as his KTM contract extension hinged on a certain performance clause relating to championship position in Moto2 - a season which didn't start until July last year.

KTM was hurt by those moves and is now trying to protect itself.

"We have established a bond with the guys," KTM's sporting director Pit Beirer said when asked about Fernandez and Gardner. "Internally, we referred to it as the 'MotoGP Academy'. We incorporated it from the off-road disciplines and transferred it to the circuits. It's not nice to see the competition groping your youngsters.

"What these guys are doing in Moto2 is really amazing. We're a little bit better than everyone else. It's the fruit of the work we do with the kids and something we're really proud of."

Raul Fernandez, Red Bull KTM Ajo, Remy Gardner, Red Bull KTM Ajo

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

It was not for money that Espargaro joined Honda, where he always wanted to race, nor why Martin joined Pramac (his contract is directly with Ducati).

The Italian manufacturer has also implemented a new signing policy, based on the advantage of having six bikes on the grid - a tally which next year will be increased to eight.

Having a third of the bikes on the 2022 grid has two implicit advantages. First, at a development level, it will yield a potentially greater amount of useful information for Ducati. On the other, it serves as a bait for riders who want to step up to the premier class and have the option of getting on a Desmosedici, the most balanced prototype of the moment.

To this point, there is no better sales argument than the cases of Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller - who have both emerged as regular winners in the factory team this year after serving their dues at Pramac. Martin, a winner in the Styrian GP in his first season with Pramac, and Avintia's Enea Bastianini after his eye-catching charge to the podium at the San Marino GP, underline this appeal further.

The Borgo Panigale company has left behind the era in which it offered millions to established riders, such as Valentino Rossi (2011) or Jorge Lorenzo (2017), which has given way to a philosophy more focused on the machine than on the rider.

The control of young talent has become so important that even Yamaha, one of the most traditional brands, has reacted to the new map that is emerging, getting involved in a Moto2 project with Valentino Rossi's Master Camp scheme next year. The Iwata-based company is aware that the open market for riders is increasingly closed, and the solution lies in 'hunting down' promising riders when they are still in their early stages of development.

How does Honda fit into this new map of the control of the young rider market? Since the 2013 arrival of Marc Marquez from Moto2, it has not signed any young rider. Perhaps having one of the best riders in history has led it to neglect the young market?

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Enea Bastianini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: MotoGP

"No, not really," HRC Team Manager Alberto Puig counters to Autosport's question. "I think Honda, if you look at our history, we have always had the best riders. But for a rider to sign he also has to want to come.

"Honda has had the best riders for many years, not just because. It must be for a reason, for many reasons. At the moment we have the best rider. As for the young generation you are talking about, it remains to be seen how far each rider can go.

"Nowadays it is very fashionable to see a rider and praise him. Honda has never done this, we have never signed youngsters at a very early age."

Honda has, however, run promotion cups in the past, such as the Movistar Cup from which Pedrosa emerged, or more recently the Asia Talent Cup.

"KTM's breeding ground is very good. It is already racing as a factory and in recent years it has taken a step forward. Now it remains to be seen how far it will go" Alberto Puig

"If a rider is good and grows, he decides where he wants to go," added Puig. "Nowadays it is true that the policies that KTM, for example, are doing are very worthy. They have a promotion cup and a lot of good riders come out of it. They take 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 [in 2007].

"KTM's breeding ground is very good. It is already racing as a factory and in recent years it has taken a step forward. Now it remains to be seen how far it will go. Signing the best riders doesn't guarantee you a win."

Has KTM, and to a lesser extent Ducati, wrested control of the young talent from Honda? Apparently so, but now all that remains is for that dominance to be translated into world championships.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images