Is KTM on the Brink of Withdrawal from MotoGP?

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misfit said:
I thought he was worth more than this but it's indeed his current, published net worth.

Puts into perspective Bernie Ecclestone's £625M tax bill!!

It's amazing how a simple musing or reflection of what if, turns into a serious proposal that makes the news. I can easily imagine Lewis voicing a dream or wish, using KTM's situation as a springboard.
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My guess is that somebody completely made this up, with no participation, even indirect participation, from Hamilton.
 
Salzburger Nachrichten is reporting that KTM needs over 500M euros cash injection to stay afloat. Also, rumors abound that KTM is missing their payroll obligations.

https://www.sn.at/wirtschaft/oesterreich/kraftakt-stefan-pierer-fuer-rettung-ktm-millionen-euro-170078284?_gl=1%2a2nlrml%2a_up%2aMQ..%2a_ga%2aMTM5NDIzOTM2Ni4xNzM0MTIxNTY4%2a_ga_8RT1Y6PF03%2aMTczNDEyMTU2Ny4xLjAuMTczNDEyMTU2Ny42MC4wLjA.

I'm not sure why KTM's condition was not widely reported months ago. It took about 5 minutes to do back-of-the-napkin math to realize they had a cash/leverage problem.
 
Starting to struggle for manufacturers in the series now. Sports bikes aren't selling. It is starting look hard to get enough bikes on there. Harder than it was anyway. They need to cut out more of the crap like aero and ride height that is costing so much. It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for any manufacturer to be there, let alone one that is insolvent. :(
 
warthog1 said:
Starting to struggle for manufacturers in the series now. Sports bikes aren't selling. It is starting look hard to get enough bikes on there. Harder than it was anyway. They need to cut out more of the crap like aero and ride height that is costing so much. It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for any manufacturer to be there, let alone one that is insolvent. :(
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I would guess that Liberty Media did some due diligence before investing in MotoGP, and there will be a plan for a way forward. If the media income can be increased as they say it can, then there would be plenty of finance to run teams. Maybe not teams with the size and engineering sophistication of Ducati, but I think the budgets would have to drop an awful lot before there is a real loss in racing quality.

Only if it becomes necessary to save the championship if manufacturers exit, there could be a spec 1000cc engine tuned a bit to give, say, 240hp. And then allow independent frame development. So, sort of like Moto2 now but with more power and therefore speed. If Kalex and Boscoscuro can make it work with the lesser exposure (and therefore lesser sponsor finance) in Moto2, I'm sure it could work in MotoGP.

The CRT experiment was in a field that still had manufacturers. If that was returned and enforced for everyone, then I think that could work. But, I can never see manufacters being deliberately removed from the championship, so this would only happen in an extreme situation.

In terms of the future, there are electric motorcycles. But, while there are plenty of brands of electric motorcycles out there, I think they need a doubling of battery capacity from the current approximately 20kw/hr before they can take over on the road. That will happen, but it will take time. And, for races similar to what we see now, battery capacity needs to be much more.

Going way off topic here. So, to bring it back, will a situation be bought in whereby the teams make a profit for their manufacturer, as well as exposure/advertising? That would perhaps keep even a struggling company such as KTM in.
 
#22 said:
Sadly always the same, the worker bees are going to suffer while the corporate side who got the company into this mess will have golden parachutes.
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Experiencing this now at my job. The people that made the bad decisions are all still employed and as you said the worker bees are the ones losing their jobs.
 
Jeremy McWilliams has been dropped from his KTM testing role, with KTM's financial woes blamed for that. I was a bit surprised to hear that he had been testing for KTM, because of my excessive focus on MotoGP. While he did do some early work testing the RC16 for MotoGP, he's mainly been testing other bikes such as the Supersport 990 twin. And, he's been doing well in various races including the King of the Baggers series that I only became aware of last month or something.

Probably everyone knew all of this already, and it's only me that's catching up :D

www.crash.net

KTM axes legendary ex-racer from test role

Jeremy McWilliams has been dropped from his long-held role as a KTM test rider.
www.crash.net www.crash.net

When I read the article title, I jumped to the conclusion that it would be Pedrosa, and my eyebrows were heading skywards. Then half a second later I read the subtitle.
 
AnnoyingTwit said:
I would guess that Liberty Media did some due diligence before investing in MotoGP, and there will be a plan for a way forward. If the media income can be increased as they say it can, then there would be plenty of finance to run teams. Maybe not teams with the size and engineering sophistication of Ducati, but I think the budgets would have to drop an awful lot before there is a real loss in racing quality.

Only if it becomes necessary to save the championship if manufacturers exit, there could be a spec 1000cc engine tuned a bit to give, say, 240hp. And then allow independent frame development. So, sort of like Moto2 now but with more power and therefore speed. If Kalex and Boscoscuro can make it work with the lesser exposure (and therefore lesser sponsor finance) in Moto2, I'm sure it could work in MotoGP.

The CRT experiment was in a field that still had manufacturers. If that was returned and enforced for everyone, then I think that could work. But, I can never see manufacters being deliberately removed from the championship, so this would only happen in an extreme situation.

In terms of the future, there are electric motorcycles. But, while there are plenty of brands of electric motorcycles out there, I think they need a doubling of battery capacity from the current approximately 20kw/hr before they can take over on the road. That will happen, but it will take time. And, for races similar to what we see now, battery capacity needs to be much more.

Going way off topic here. So, to bring it back, will a situation be bought in whereby the teams make a profit for their manufacturer, as well as exposure/advertising? That would perhaps keep even a struggling company such as KTM in.
Click to expand...

The future of motorsport is a topic that comes to the forefront every 5-10 years. For the last several decades, factions have battled to determine if motorsport is entertainment or technology/advertising. Traditional sports generally have broader appeal than motorsports, and since teams, like Real Madrid, don’t sell anything except merchandise, they can focus on the sport.

The entertainment people have been winning for some time in the motorsport paddock, but their attempts to marry entertainment and tech/marketing have become increasingly shambolic, and the manufacturers would rather that motorsport didn’t exist than to have it grow and fall into the wrong hands.

MotoGP crossed this bridge in 2002. It could entertain with cheap 2-smokes or it could market the latest whizz-bang with 4-strokes. We know the path they chose, and how I’ll-equipped the GPC was to address the challenges of 4-stroke Grand Prix racing in the digital era.
 
mylexicon said:
The future of motorsport is a topic that comes to the forefront every 5-10 years. For the last several decades, factions have battled to determine if motorsport is entertainment or technology/advertising. Traditional sports generally have broader appeal than motorsports, and since teams, like Real Madrid, don’t sell anything except merchandise, they can focus on the sport.

The entertainment people have been winning for some time in the motorsport paddock, but their attempts to marry entertainment and tech/marketing have become increasingly shambolic, and the manufacturers would rather that motorsport didn’t exist than to have it grow and fall into the wrong hands.

MotoGP crossed this bridge in 2002. It could entertain with cheap 2-smokes or it could market the latest whizz-bang with 4-strokes. We know the path they chose, and how I’ll-equipped the GPC was to address the challenges of 4-stroke Grand Prix racing in the digital era.
Click to expand...

Once a sport achieves 'big bucks' status, it stops being a sport really. I disagree that football has avoided this, particularly in the UK where I live. I also don't think it was the change to 4-strokes that was the crucial factor. Even if that change hadn't been made, I think we would be in the same situation. I feel that the change to 4-strokes was to ensure some sort of match between what is being raced, and what is being sold, to keep the manufacturers engaged.

The crossing of the Rubicon point for me was when coverage was no longer widely available to all on free-to-air TV, but only via various subscription and paid sources. This creates the bigger revenue stream that makes sports a financial plaything, rather than real sport.

I still watch and enjoy MotoGP, but it is now something different from what it was decades ago. The same is happening to all sports. As soon as a sport becomes popular enough that people will pay significant amounts to watch it, eventually that will happen.

EDIT: KTM employees (unless this has changed) to go unpaid over Christmas. KTM workers to go unpaid over Christmas. It's going to be hard to justify a MotoGP team and their status as a constructor if their employees are having their paychecks delayed like this. If it continues to happen, even occasionally.
 
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No company is immune to changes. If I recall correctly, VW own Audi who owns Ducati. Half of VW's sales are in China and that has collapsed. There's also youtube videos on how VW is going to move its production lines out of Germany to various locations in EU, Asia and Mexico. It's possible or VW to sell some of its assets including Ducati
 

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