Jake Dixon victory also a first for much-maligned WP suspension brand

All three Pierer Mobility Group teams made a significant change for the 2024 Moto2 World Championship, as the CFMoto Aspar Team, Red Bull KTM Ajo, and Liqui Moly Intact Husqvarna switched suspension brands.

Ohlins, the Swedish suspension manufacturer, has won every Moto2 world title since the class’ inception in 2010 when it replaced the old 250cc World Championship.

However, Aspar, Ajo, and Intact all switched to WP for this season, the suspension brand which is a part of the same Pierer Mobility Group (PMG) as the respective motorcycle brands to which the teams are associated.

The switch hasn’t proven a straightforward one, with CFMoto Aspar’s Jake Dixon achieving the only podium from the teams’ six Moto2 riders in the first half of the season, that coming at the Catalan Grand Prix where the #96 was 9.186 seconds off the victorious Ai Ogura, on Ohlins.

Improvements were apparent for the WP-shod bikes in the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, as KTM Ajo’s Celestino Vietti qualified on pole and Dixon joined him on the front row in second place. Fermin Aldeguer, who qualified third, won the Grand Prix, two seconds ahead of Dixon, while Vietti hung onto third until the final lap, when he dropped to fifth having run out of rear grip.

Despite Aldeguer’s win and Vietti’s slide backwards at the end, the German race showed promising signs for WP, which last weekend took its first win in Moto2 since Brad Binder took the final victory for the KTM chassis in the intermediate class at the 2019 Valencia Grand Prix as Jake Dixon beat Aron Canet on the final lap of the 2024 British Grand Prix.

Joining Dixon and Canet on the podium was Vietti, who took his first podium of the year having switched to KTM Ajo from Fantic over the winter.

Despite the apparent progress in recent races, and a test over the summer break for WP in which all of the riding was completed by MotoGP rider and reigning Moto2 World Champion Pedro Acosta, the victorious Dixon said nothing materially had changed suspension-wise.

“They’ve not brought anything,” Dixon said of WP following his Silverstone win. Instead, he put his improvements down to his Aspar team, and their understanding of both the new suspension and the things Dixon himself needs from the motorcycle.

“They [WP] do a fantastic job doing what they do, and help us as much as they can,” Dixon said. “But, honestly, my team have just been able to find my situation and solutions to what I need to be where I am right now.”

Comments from Celestino Vietti in the Moto2 post-race press conference in Silverstone somewhat backed up what Dixon had said.

About Acosta’s test, which took place at the Red Bull Ring, Vietti said that “What I know is that maybe he [Acosta] doesn’t test a lot of things — he does one day to ride the bike, and he explained what he felt.

“I don’t know if he had something new to try or something different, but I think he explained something similar to what I feel, so they have one more rider that feels what we are feeling from the beginning.”

Vietti said that, despite the lack of hardware updates from WP, having a rider like Acosta testing for them was beneficial. “We know the direction, but having comments from a world champion and a good rider like Pedro will help us to grow and to go forward,” the Italian said.

Dixon agreed, saying “I think all the comments that we’ve said were highlighted by him. So, if it needs to take him to highlight the comments then we’ll welcome it.”

After his Silverstone victory, Dixon moved up to seventh in the championship, 82 points behind championship leader Sergio Garcia, while Vietti’s third place leaves him ninth, a further seven points behind Dixon.