Neumeister shuts the door on a sale
KTM will not sell its MotoGP team. Chief executive Gottfried Neumeister said so at the Red Bull Ring on Friday, closing a question that has trailed the Austrian manufacturer for more than a year. No full sale, no minority stake, no outside shareholder.
The rumours had a basis. KTM spent much of its 2025 financial crisis burning cash, and the MotoGP programme carries the heaviest bill of any of its racing projects. Talk circulated that the factory might copy the Mercedes model in Formula 1 and bring in a partner rather than own the operation outright.
Neumeister rejected all of it. KTM has signed a five-year agreement with Dorna covering the new 850cc era, and the CEO framed the team as something to win with rather than trade.
Try it for $0.99.
The numbers behind the decision
The company broke even at EBIT level in the second quarter, its first profit in almost two years. It sold close to 100,000 motorcycles in the first half of 2026. Bajaj holds a controlling 75% stake after stepping in during the crisis, and Neumeister said the racing budget had to justify itself commercially to survive that process.
He argued it did. KTM won the Dakar this year and has collected six world championship titles across its motorsport programmes with the season still running. “Motorsport is our DNA, it’s our test lab,” Neumeister said, pointing to how race parts feed into series production.
He also acknowledged what the squeeze cost his riders, who spent months on a bike the factory could not afford to develop.
One title still missing
KTM has won in Moto3 and Moto2. The premier class remains the gap. Neumeister set it out as a plan rather than a deadline, and the budget now exists to chase it.
The 2027 line-up is already settled and looks nothing like the current one. Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio take the factory seats, with Luca Marini and rookie Senna Agius at Tech3. Pedro Acosta, who topped both Friday sessions in Austria, is not among them.
Discover the rest of our MotoGP news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply