The author of that piece is gunther wiener as he is affectionately called. He is a Honda heater, so he is always the first with news like this.
With even long-time Honda team members suddenly betting that Marc Márquez will switch to KTM in 2024, it's high time to get to the bottom of the matter. After the five falls at the Sachsenring and the repeated failure to start in Germany and on Sunday in Assen, the Spaniard realized that the four-year contract concluded with HRC in January 2020 was a mistake, even if it brings in an annual fee of 20 to 25 million.
It was already obvious in March and April 2023 that Ducati, Aprilia and Yamaha were not interested in the six-time MotoGP world champion for various reasons.
And at Pierer Mobility AG there was simply no place for the 30-year-old Spaniard. Because Binder and Miller have watertight contracts for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team in 2024 and have already put in some strong performances this season.
Hervé Poncharal's GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 team was already experiencing a bottleneck before the season started in Portimão: Pol Espargaró (he has a contract for the coming season), Moto2 World Champion Augusto Fernández and current Moto2 title contender Pedro Acosta were all jostling for two places there for 2024.
The attempt to make a third Moto2 World Championship season palatable for the gifted Acosta (Moto3 World Champion 2021) for 2024 failed early on.
Red Bull inquired about possible additional starting places at the Portugal GP. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta made it clear, however, that the two orphaned Suzuki seats will remain reserved for a factory team (such as BMW, Kawasaki or MV Agusta) and will be driven by 22 drivers and eleven teams until then.
However, Red Bull and KTM could not access additional places at Mooney VR46 and Gresini Racing because these two racing teams continue with Ducati. RNF stays with Aprilia, Pramac with Ducati, and LCR team owner Lucio Cecchinello has a three-year deal with HRC until the end of 2024.
SPEEDWEEK.com then revealed in June that Red Bull and KTM were sticking with Dorna, asking if Moto3 and Moto2 team principal Aki Ajo could have two MotoGP spots for the three years 2024-2026. These places would apparently have been reserved for Márquez and Acosta. No new plant will be added until 2026 anyway; because in 2027 new technology regulations will come into force.
In the meantime it had leaked out that Red Bull, KTM and Ajo had offered a very attractive driver duo: Marc Márquez and Pedro Acosta.
As a reminder: Marc Márquez won the 125cc World Championship in 2010 in the Ajo team on a derbi, and he never lost contact. And Red Bull KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti also maintains a good relationship with the superstar from Cervera: he worked as KTM team manager with the up-and-coming talent from Spain in the 125cc World Championship in 2008 and 2009. Marc finished the 125cc World Championship 2009 on the KTM in eighth place overall.
Guidotti revealed in June he was working hard on a plan to bring Marquez to KTM. "If Ducati can have eight seats, why can't we claim six slots," asked the Italian, who worked for Pramac-Ducati for ten years until the end of 2022.
Now it is becoming apparent how a deal between Red Bull and KTM and Marc Márquez can come about under time pressure: The Pierer Group is in contact with LCR team owner Lucio Cecchinello - and would like to bring him into the KTM camp.
When asked about his contract situation with Honda, the seven-time 125cc GP winner told SPEEDWEEK.com: "I have a three-year contract with HRC until the end of 2024. That's it."
When asked if he would fulfill the agreement, Cecchinello replied with an eloquent silence.
But of course he knows that KTM wants to expand its MotoGP activities. And he has had excellent relations with Red Bull for years - from 2012 to 2014 because of Stefan Bradl: he also had Red Bull advertising on the LCR Honda RC213V at the time. After that, Red Bull athlete Jack Miller was with LCR, followed by Taka Nakagami.
Cecchinello was already a KTM candidate when the first MotoGP customer team was formed for 2019. But he declined and stayed with Honda. KTM therefore chose Tech3; the French team had been cooperating with Yamaha for 18 years.
LCR is now in its 18th MotoGP season with Honda.
However, every attentive observer has noticed that the relationship between the LCR team and those responsible for HRC has cooled off considerably in the last six or seven months.
Alex Rins is also making no secret of the fact that HRC has not delivered the agreed first class material, which is why he wants to join the Yamaha factory team - despite a contract for 2024.
When, after Rins' victory in Texas, the question arose as to whether the Spaniard could possibly be shipped to the Repsol team in 2024 instead of Joan Mir, Cecchinello was convinced: "Never in my life. Alex will continue to drive 100 percent at LCR in 2024."
Now the odds of Rins' move to Yamaha are fifty-fifty.
Apparently the HRC managers are still living in the era when MotoGP customer teams were fobbed off with used bikes, only filling up the grid and the success of a customer team was just as undesirable as the victory of an opposing manufacturer.
Ducati, Yamaha (2019 and 2020 with Petronas, 2021 with WithU-RNF) and KTM as well as GASGAS have long since equipped their satellite teams with first-class equipment; Ducati has been doing that at Pramac for years, at least.
LCR entered the MotoGP World Championship in 2006 with Casey Stoner and Honda and is one of the best private teams in the "premier class" - and with four victories (3x Crutchlow, 1x Rins) also one of the most successful.
