Herve Poncharal addresses reports of Tech3 MotoGP team leaving KTM

Tech3 KTM team boss Herve Poncharal has responded to rumours linking the French outfit with a move away from the Austrian manufacturer in MotoGP.

Tech3 has been with KTM since 2019, and has been the Mattighofen marque’s only satellite team in MotoGP to date.

But the combination of KTM’s financial difficulties, which began in 2024, and recent speculation regarding changes to the ownership of the Tech3 team, which has been linked with former F1 team principal and WRC team boss Guenther Steiner, has led to suggestions that Tech3 could leave KTM even by the end of 2025.

Poncharal, though, insists that he is happy working with KTM and intends to continue that relationship beyond 2025 – indeed, Tech3’s current MotoGP contract with the Austrian manufacturer does not expire until the end of 2026.

“I [currently] have a contract, a valid contract, and a really good contract, and I want to thank Stefan Pierer, Hubert Trunkenpolz, and Pit Beirer for giving me this working relationship,” Poncharal told the MotoGP international TV feed during FP2 on Saturday morning in Aragon.

“Our contract is until the end of 2026 and I have no sign and haven’t been told that that won’t happen. So, for 2026 is going to be four Red Bull KTMs on-track: Acosta, Binder, Vinales, Bastianini.”

Poncharal added that his intention is to continue working with KTM beyond 2026 and into MotoGP’s incoming 850cc regulations.

“All I wish, and everything I’m working on at the moment, even from 2027 until 2031, is to sign a deal with KTM and be the second KTM team on the grid; with maybe different colours, maybe different investors on my side.

“But I’ve not been talking to any other manufacturer at the moment.

“I read also a lot of things, but I can promise you that, for the moment, 100 per cent of our energy is to work with KTM until the end of 2026 and to work on a new contract for 2027–2031 with KTM.

“We trust them and we’re sure they’re going to be there with a competitive package.”

Finally, Poncharal said that he wishes to have his team’s future sorted and secured by the end of 2025, although he admitted that such a target is quite a vague one.

“By the end of 2025 [...] I would like everything to be clear,” he said.

“But end of 2025 could be September, could be October.

“I don’t give a precise date at the moment, but what I will say is I will do everything I can to have Tech3 with the structure and the people in the MotoGP paddock for a few more years.”