KTM Announce 2021 MotoGP Riders

KTM have announced the line-ups for both the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Red Bull KTM Tech 3 teams for 2021, with both seeing changes from their 2020 rosters.

Firstly, it is notable that Pol Espargaro, who has been instrumental in KTM’s MotoGP programme so far since he joined the project in 2017. The 2013 Moto2 World Champion achieved KTM’s first MotoGP podium in the wet at Valencia in 2018, and scored their best dry weather result at Le Mans last season. 

Espargaro’s absence from KTM for 2021 opens the door for him to replace Alex Marquez at Repsol Honda, whilst replacing him in the factory KTM team for next year will be Miguel Oliveira. Oliveira was miffed with KTM when they chose Brad Binder over him for 2020, so a further snub from the Austrian factory could have been fatal for their relationship which stretches back to 2015 (albeit with a brief interlude in 2016 when Olveira rode the Leopard Kalex in Moto2). KTM are keen to achieve success in the MotoGP class with riders they have nurtured from the junior categories, so holding onto Oliveira is a positive in this aspect for the brand, as well as when considering that Oliveira had overall a quite impressive rookie MotoGP season with Tech 3 in 2019, in which he often gave the factory riders, including occasionally Espargaro, something to worry about before his season ended early after a big crash in practice for the Australian GP last October.

Oliveira will partner Brad Binder in 2021, with the South African rider maintaining his spot in the factory team. Although Binder has not yet made his MotoGP debut, his performances in the junior categories, including the 2016 Moto3 World Championship, offer enough promise for KTM to keep him on alongside Oliveira – whom Binder partnered in 2015, 2017 and 2018 in the Ajo KTM teams across Moto3 and Moto2 – to make the most inexperienced MotoGP factory team on the grid for 2021 

In the Tech 3 team, Oliveira’s 2020 teammate, Iker Lecuona, will stay put for 2021. Unlike Binder, Lecuona, although a rookie for 2020, has made his MotoGP debut, in which he made a good first impression in Valencia last season, posting strong times in free practice before ultimately his race was cut short by a crash at turn six. KTM are more than justified in retaining Lecuona for 2021, also for some of the same reasons they are justified in keeping hold of Binder – both are huge talents who have not yet had a proper chance on a KTM RC16. 

Alongside Lecuona in Tech 3 will be Danilo Petrucci who moves over from Ducati. The 2019 Italian GP winner’s time at Ducati was announced to be over earlier this year and, despite it initially being hypothesised that Petrucci’s 2019 teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, would be heading KTM’s way, it became clear a few weeks ago that it was in fact Petrucci who was pursuing this avenue. What was not clear then, however, was that Petrucci would be going to the satellite team, but this is a move that makes sense. For Petrucci, he presumably gets a decent Red Bull-sized pay cheque, he gets to continue racing in MotoGP, on a bike that it seems is on a decent development path and should suit his style, which is somewhat comparable to Pol Espargaro’s. For KTM, they get a rider who has known the inner workings of Ducati since 2015, who has an incredible determination – represented by his rise from CRT backmarker to GP winner in five years – and they get to maintain the trust and belief of Oliveira in the process, which might not have been the case had Petrucci gone into the factory team over the Portuguese. 

It is certainly an exciting line-up for KTM in 2021, with a great deal of youth combining with Petrucci’s comparative experience. However, as with all 2021 news, it seems odd that we have not yet seen the 2020 season get underway before learning such significant details about 2021.