KTM’s show of faith in Jack Miller: “We believe in the riders we have” for 2025

KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer has pledged to avoid a repeat of last year’s ‘uncomfortable situation” where the factory signed five MotoGP riders but only had four seats.

The situation was triggered by the meteoric rise through the lower grand prix classes by Pedro Acosta, meaning the teenager was “knocking on the door” of MotoGP “one or two years earlier than we expected”.

Jack Miller was forced to publicly defend his contractual status amid mounting speculation that Acosta would take his factory KTM.

After enquiries for a fifth MotoGP grid place were rebuffed, Tech3’s Pol Espargaro was eventually persuaded to make way for Acosta by stepping down to test and wild-card duties.

But with most of the MotoGP grid - including a certain Marc Marquez - out of contract at the end of this year, and only Brad Binder officially confirmed in orange for 2025, might rider signings again prove a hot topic fo KTM?

“Let’s hope our boys stay healthy and perform like we all wish and then maybe it’s not even that stressful, because we stick to the four boys like we have now,” Beirer revealed.

“I don’t feel the same pressure coming up right now like we had with Pedro, a guy jumping through the disciplines like crazy and then knocking on the door [of MotoGP] one or two years earlier than we expected some time ago.

“So I feel for the moment we have a great package of four riders and we can now watch a bit carefully what’s going on in the market.

“I can promise you one thing: I will not sign a rider number five unless we have a third team [in MotoGP 2025] or one of the boys wants to leave us.

“Of course, we brought ourselves into that uncomfortable situation [last year] and all of your guys followed closely why, what and everything around this topic.

“It gave us a crazy headache and I don’t want to go through this scenario too often!

“But I feel at the moment we are not in the front row to make a big change because we believe in the riders we have.”

Although KTM’s 2024 MotoGP rider ‘headache’ was resolved amicably, Pit Beirer confirmed the factory has not given up on trying to acquire more grid places by finding a second satellite team alongside Tech3 (GASGAS).

“Some contracts are up so some teams are looking for a manufacturer,” he said.

“This discussion is on now but also not that simple because if people are happy, why do they need to change? So it’s not decided, but we listen to everybody and we are discussing.”