KTM has confirmed that Moto2 and Moto3 team owner Aki Ajo will replace Francesco Guidotti as the manager of its Red Bull-backed factory MotoGP team.
The Ajo Motorsport chief is set to take over at the end of the 2024 season as part of a dramatic shake-up as KTM tries to fits its ailing MotoGP programme.
Ajo has been an instrumental part of KTM’s road to MotoGP structure since the new Moto3 class replaced 125c two-strokes in 2012, winning the inaugural title with Sandro Cortese.
The team has since won two more championships in the lightweight class with KTM's works 2025 MotoGP team-mates Brad Binder in 2016 (pictured above) and Pedro Acosta in 2021, as well as consecutive Moto2 titles in 2021 with Remy Gardner, 2022 with Augusto Fernandez and 2023 with Acosta.
A promotion to the premier class for the Ajo team, rather than for its founder personally, has long been speculated about given its huge success at lower levels.
KTM is believed to have launched an ultimately unsuccessful effort last year to secure an additional premier class grid spot to allow Ajo to enter a single-bike team for Acosta.
Instead, Ajo will now step up to MotoGP as a team boss rather than an owner, replacing Guidotti only three seasons after KTM lured him away from top satellite squad Pramac as part of another effort to turn around what has become a largely stagnant project in recent years.
Ajo’s son and former team Moto3 racer Niklas is believed to be set to take over the running of KTM’s factory backed Moto2 and Moto3 efforts.
Guidotti’s departure has been hinted at for some time, with former MotoGP star and current KTM test rider and occasional wildcard Dani Pedrosa first linked to the team boss role despite his lack of managerial experience.
Although that role has gone to Ajo, it still seems KTM is keen to find an expanded role for Pedrosa within its ranks.
Guidotti’s departure was announced during racers’ media debriefs an hour after the conclusion of Sunday’s Indonesian Grand Prix, before the confirmation of Ajo’s appointment followed just under 24 hours later.
KTM's grand prix winless streak now stretches all the way back to Miguel Olivera’s October 2022 victory at the Thai Grand Prix (pictured below) and its outright drought to Binder's April 2023 Jerez sprint win. And that largely seems to derive from KTM’s machine rather than its team structure, so it’s unclear how replacing Guidotti fits into the wider plan to turn around the project.
He’s set to become responsible for the day to day running of the race team rather than the development of the RC16 machine (a job instead entrusted to technical director Sebastian Risse) and he might find a significant challenge ahead of him, especially with the arrival of his former protege Acosta into factory colours for 2025 and all the expectation of a title bid that will create.
Acosta is the KTM group’s standout rider so far this year despite it being only his rookie season and him being on satellite machinery, Acosta continues to challenge the factory team’s number one rider Binder for top spot within the firm's ranks, with his second place at last weekend’s race at Mandalika taking him back ahead of Binder in the points standings and to fifth overall.
