Mathieu Warnier, Media365, published on Friday December 27, 2024 at 1:20 p.m.
The future of the KTM team in MotoGP was called into question by the financial difficulties experienced by the brand, its managers opened the door to the arrival of investors and in particular that of Lewis Hamilton.
All is not rosy at KTM. While the Austrian brand has scored five podiums this year with Brad Binder within its official team and Pedro Acosta at Tech3, its future within the MotoGP world championship is uncertain. Indeed, the manufacturer is going through a very bad time from a financial point of view, having required layoffs but also the shutdown of several factories in order to save money. Added to this was the freezing of the development of the 2025 version of the RC16, which must be entrusted to the four KTM riders next season. While several creditors have called for an end to the brand’s MotoGP program, its majority shareholder Pierer Mobility has refused to resort to such an end. It is in this context that Pit Beirer, director of the motorsport branch of KTM, made a surprising statement to the media Speedweekowned by the Red Bull group, main sponsor of the Austrian brand. The former motocross rider announced that he had established contacts with Lewis Hamilton, who could invest part of his personal fortune in the KTM team.
Hamilton might not be alone
“All I can say is that we had very interesting discussions with his management,” said Pit Beirer. It’s no secret that Lewis Hamilton is interested in MotoGP and thinking about having his own team. He is also having concrete discussions on this side. » This is not the first time that the name of Lewis Hamilton is directly or indirectly linked to MotoGP, the British rider would have thought for a time of buying the Gresini team. In addition, Pit Beirer assures that commercial links between the future Ferrari driver and a Red Bull competitor have “not been a problem in the negotiations so far”. However, Lewis Hamilton might not be the only one to intervene to get the KTM team out of the rut by taking shares in its capital. Indeed, Pit Beirer assured that “this aroused the interest of investors” but also that he had to “think about how this would be possible”. The boss of KTM Motorsport thus opens the door to a split between the brand and the team so that the latter “takes its independence from the manufacturer”. In any case, on the Mattighofen side, we say we are convinced of being able to “make interesting announcements before the start of the season”, on March 2 in Thailand.
