KTM: Gardner-Fernandez MotoGP team a ‘mistake’

KTM will not have all-rookie MotoGP teams such as the Remy Gardner-Raul Fernandez duo in the future, its Motorsports Director Pit Beirer has declared.

Gardner and Fernandez finished first and second respectively in last year’s Moto2 championship and made the step up from Red Bull KTM Ajo to Tech3’s premier class squad together.

Despite dominating the intermediate class in 2021, they are bottom two of the 24 regular riders in this year’s championship in a field which contains three other rookies, including one who made the jump straight from Moto3 in RNF Racing’s Darryn Binder.

Both will leave Tech3 KTM Factory Racing at season’s end, with Fernandez set to move to RNF as it switches allegiance from Yamaha to Aprilia, while Gardner looks to be out of MotoGP altogether.

At Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, the Austrian marque’s own team, Brad Binder will be joined by three-time MotoGP race winner Jack Miller, while Pol Espargaro returns to the fold from the factory Honda squad to ride for Tech3 in the beginning of its new era as GasGas Factory Racing.

Barring any unforeseen occurrences in the final seven rounds of 2022, those three will start the 2023 campaign with a combined 344 MotoGP race starts under their belts, whereas Gardner and Fernandez began the present season with zero.

Beirer admitted that the rookies’ struggles are not entirely their own fault, but said that having two in the one team is not productive.

“The bike needs to be easier to set up to make it easier to get into MotoGP,” he told Germany’s Motorsport-Magazin.

“We have certainly made mistakes in the past. For example, we would never put two rookies on a team again.

“If they don’t get along and you have an ailing rider in the works team, then 75 percent of your riders won’t get the project any further.”

KTM had also made a late bid to retain the services of current Red Bull KTM rider Miguel Oliveira, with hope that Tech3’s rebrand as GasGas’s factory team would tempt him to stay.

It appears though, that he too will go to RNF, in a deal set to be announced within the next 24 hours, based on a Facebook post from team boss Razlan Razali which read, “Excited for tomorrow’s announcement.”

If that is indeed the case, then Moto2 championship contender Augusto Fernandez becomes the favourite to land the second Tech3/GasGas seat in what would be the same path which Gardner and Raul Fernandez (no relation) followed.

The 2022 MotoGP season continues at Misano this weekend, with practice for the San Marino Grand Prix starting on Friday evening (AEST).