KTM team boss set to change with exciting replacement tipped

Famed Moto2 and Moto3 team owner Aki Ajo is reportedly set to replace Francesco Guidotti as team manager at the factory KTM MotoGP squad in 2025.

Reports that Guidotti, who joined KTM from Pramac in 2022, was set to leave his role as part of internal restructuring by the Austrian manufacturer emerged last weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Guidotti didn’t deny these rumours when asked about it on the grid ahead of the second Misano race, but also didn’t address them head on.

There were rumours that Dani Pedrosa, who is currently a KTM test rider, could take over the team manager role set to be vacated by Guidotti.

However, given Pedrosa’s current role with KTM largely keeps him out of the spotlight and offers him more time at home, this seemed unlikely. KTM denied to Crash.net that Pedrosa would take over.

Reports from AS now state that Ajo will take over from Guidotti, granting him a long sought-after role in MotoGP.

Ajo has a long-standing relationship with KTM through his Moto3 and Moto2 squads, which have yielded 10 world championships with riders like Marc Marquez, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta.

The Finn’s potential appointment at the factory KTM squad coincides with Acosta - who won the 2021 Moto3 and 2023 Moto2 crowns with Ajo - stepping up to the team in 2025 alongside Binder.

For 2024, KTM had hoped to field a third team but was not allowed by Dorna Sports to acquire the final two grid slots vacated by Suzuki at the end of 2022.

According to es.motorsport.com, Ajo was being touted by KTM to bring his squad to the premier class if it was able to secure those grid slots.

Should Ajo take over the team manager role at KTM, it’s not clear how his role with his Moto2 and Moto3 squads will change.

However, his son Niklas — who used to race in the Moto3 World Championship - currently works in the Ajo squad as an engineer and could be promoted to take care of the day-to-day running of the outfit.

All of this comes as KTM has gotten further away from the front of the grid in 2024, with its victory drought now dating back to 2022.

Binder is currently the lead KTM rider in the standings, but is 176 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin and hasn’t stood on the podium since the opening round of the season in Qatar.

Acosta has scored three grands prix podiums in 2024 so far, though had to wait eight races between his second and third rostrums in MotoGP.