KTM's influence on the 2025 MotoGP grid goes far beyond the four riders it has on its payroll.
The lower classes of grand prix racing are unimaginable these days without either KTM-bikes or at least KTM-liveried bikes, while the archetypical career of a young prodigy includes almost by default a stop over in the Red Bull Rookies Cup series that KTM is an integral part of.
The expectation is that this will change - with KTM's insolvency and attempts to navigate itself out of its multi-billion Euro liabilities expected to impact every facet of the company, and motorsport expenditure a prime target for cuts.
"We have invested a lot in Moto2 and Moto3 to train young riders, who in the end haven't always signed with us in MotoGP," KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer told Austria's Krone Zeitung at the end of 2024.
"These classes must become a cost-covering customer business for us.
"There will also have to be discussions about who has to be involved in ensuring that we continue to train young talent for all manufacturers together with Red Bull, as we do in the Rookies Cup."
The swaths of KTM bikes will not disappear from Moto3 or whatever form the Rookies Cup may take, and - with lots of KTM-linked talent on the verge of MotoGP right now or a couple of years away - we probably haven't yet seen the peak of KTM influence on the make-up of the premier-class grid, before it starts to decline.
Here's a breakdown of the impact KTM has had on shaping the stars of today.
Red Bull Rookies Cup graduates
Johann Zarco - 8 starts, 4 wins (2007 champion, pictured above)
Jorge Martin - 42 starts, 8 wins (2014 champion)
Pedro Acosta - 22 starts, 9 wins (2020 champion)
Brad Binder - 32 starts, 1 win (pictured below)
Joan Mir - 28 starts, 3 wins
Fabio Di Giannantonio - 27 starts, 3 wins
Raul Fernandez - 25 starts, 2 wins
Ai Ogura - 22 starts, 2 wins
Enea Bastianini - 14 starts, 2 wins
Miguel Oliveira - 3 starts, 2 wins
The addition of Ai Ogura to the grid this year - even despite his well-known status as a long-time Honda protege - means MotoGP is now in double digits for Red Bull Rookies Cup graduates on the current premier-class grid.
The series, which supports MotoGP and does not require a budget from selected riders apart from travel and accommodation expenses, has run with KTM machinery since 2007 and is an increasingly essential stepping stone now, particularly so as the minimum age to compete in grand prix racing was raised to 18 (with exceptions).
"Sometimes it was really hard for me, for my family to continue racing," MotoGP's reigning champion Martin (pictured above in his Red Bull Rookies Cup-winning year) recalled back in 2018, in the aftermath of his Moto3 title triumph.
"We are a really humble family. I did the Red Bull Rookies Cup selection event - in the first year they didn't take me, I raced again another year but it was almost the limit. The second year I made the selection, it was the last moment. If they took me, I would continue racing. If not, I stayed at home."
Mir, another future MotoGP champion, was Martin's closest rival in his Red Bull Rookies Cup-winning season.
And while the first decade of the series, after inaugural champion Zarco (pictured above), had a series of champions who didn't really pan out as MotoGP prospects, things look to be different now - as recent winners include not just Acosta but 'next Acosta' David Alonso and the eye-catching Angel Piqueras.
Factory KTM riders pre-MotoGP
Jorge Martin
Marc Marquez (pictured above)
Brad Binder
Pedro Acosta
Marco Bezzecchi
Jack Miller
Miguel Oliveira
Raul Fernandez
Martin, in having broken with KTM right on the cusp of his MotoGP graduation, is a famous example of what Beirer alluded to: riders going through the KTM pipeline and then getting scooped up by another manufacturer.
Another big one it missed out on was Marc Marquez, but that was timing. While he was a factory KTM rider in his 125cc days, there were no further steps to take with KTM (at that point nowhere near a MotoGP entry, and soon withdrawing from 125cc anyway), so Honda reaped the benefits of his generational talent in the end.
The only other rider on the above list who 'got away' before MotoGP was Marco Bezzecchi, although his time decked out in full KTM gear - as part of Tech3 (pictured above) - was short-lived, with an underwhelming rookie intermediate-class season on a KTM chassis that was gone from the grid at the end of that 2019 campaign.
Other KTM riders pre-MotoGP
Pecco Bagnaia (pictured above)
Enea Bastianini
Maverick Vinales
Alex Marquez
Fabio Quartararo
Alex Rins
Joan Mir
For those who never wore KTM colours, KTM still almost always played a role - through being a supplier to the customer team of their choosing in Moto3.
Maverick Vinales won the 2013 title on a blue Calvo KTM (pictured below) as part of an all-KTM title fight that also included Alex Rins and the late Luis Salom (pictured right and centre respectively, above, with Vinales), with Rins's team-mate Alex Marquez best of the rest - also on a KTM.
The next year that Rins/Marquez team - run by long-time Marc Marquez manager and 1999 125cc champion Emilio Alzamora - switched to Honda and denied KTM a works-branded title by two points, with the younger Marquez beating none other than Jack Miller.
Everyone on the list had a generally fruitful time riding KTMs in Moto3, save for Fabio Quartararo - whose time on a Leopard KTM just didn't go very well at all and helped snuff out his early-career momentum.
No significant KTM history
Franco Morbidelli
Luca Marini
Fermin Aldeguer
Somkiat Chantra
Make no mistake - these four are the outliers, largely by virtue of unorthodox paths into MotoGP.
One went through the World Superbike paddock (Morbidelli), one was too tall for Moto3 (Marini, pictured above), one made his name in European Moto2 away from grand prix racing (Aldeguer), and one was completely a product of the Honda pipeline starting in the all-Honda Asia Talent Cup (Chantra).
They are the exceptions to the rule - and, regardless of KTM's current struggles and plans to scale down, its impact will continue to be felt for the foreseeable future.
