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Remy Gardner could yet lose his MotoGP seat at the Tech3 KTM team to current Moto2 championship leader Augusto Fernandez.
KTM has already signed Jack Miller up to join incumbent Brad Binder at the factory team in 2023, but no announcement has yet been made on who will ride for its satellite team.
Gardner had been thought to be relatively likely to stay on at Tech3, with Pol Espargaro believed to be on the way back to the Austrian marque from Honda, and Raul Fernandez leaving for future Aprilia satellite squad RNF.
However, KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer has now cast doubt on that idea.
“It’s about two riders at Tech3 and one of them is pretty much decided,” Beirer told MotoGP.com pit reporter Simon Crafar at the most recent round at Silverstone.
“But the second spot is definitely open.
“We are looking and talking about our new generation of riders, so we have to wait a little bit more.
“But I think by Spielberg, we should finalise at least one part of the garage.
“But for the young riders, we want to wait a little bit more.”
‘Spielberg’ is the Red Bull Ring, which hosts the next round of the MotoGP season, the Austrian Grand Prix, in just over a week from now.
Red Bull being the naming rights sponsor of its factory team, a major announcement from KTM would be highly likely there.
Espargaro said days ago at the British Grand Prix that his 2023 bike will be “very familiar”, suggesting he does indeed have the seat which has been decided.
Gardner, meanwhile, has had a somewhat underwhelming rookie season in the premier class after winning the Moto2 championship last year, but was praised by Tech3 boss Herve Poncharal for “his best weekend of the season so far” at Silverstone.
Poncharal made that assessment despite the Australian missing the points by finishing 18th, citing that he had finished closer to the winner than at any other time this year.
Just over an hour later after that race, however, Augusto Fernandez clinched his third race win in a row for Gardner’s old team, Red Bull KTM Ajo.
The Austrian Grand Prix takes place on August 19-21.
