KTM’s extensive presence and impact in the Moto3™ and Moto2™ categories of 2024 MotoGP™ will once more lie in the extremely capable hands of the Red Bull KTM Ajo squad this season. The team will again lead the KTM GP Academy project in both classes for the 21-round world championship.
KTM have won two of the last four Moto3 world titles with the KTM RC4 and they have clinched the Moto2 world championship for three years in succession: 2021, 2022 and 2023. The prolific Red Bull KTM Ajo outfit have bagged four of these crowns and helped elevate no less than six riders onto the MotoGP grid and into factory teams.
The quest for more silverware and the development of the current four-rider roster continues for 2024. Jose Antonio Rueda (18-years-old) and Xabi Zurutuza (18 in April and therefore not debuting until the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas and round three of the campaign. Vicente Perez will deputize in Qatar and Portugal) will run in Moto3. Rueda, the 2022 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Champion, ended his first Grand Prix season in 2023 with 9th place in the championship, and one podium finish (3rd place in Catalunya). Zurutuza is the bright new rookie on the scene and showed he has undoubted pace and potential with two FIM JuniorGP wins last year.
Moto2 responsibilities fall to Celestino Vietti (22) for what will be the Italian star’s fourth term in the category and where he has already notched four victories, and incoming Turkish rookie Deniz Öncü (20) who makes the step up from two active and successful seasons in Moto3 where he managed to walk the top step of the rostrum three times.
The foundation layers of the KTM GP Academy comes from high-quality feeder and ‘filtering’ series that allow the most promising youth prospects to compete, to learn and to standout. The provision of KTM machinery in these contests allows an early bond to form between the athlete, the technology and the ethos of the company. In 2024 many eyes will again be on the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup: a championship that involves seven rounds and fourteen outings and from which almost half of the current premier class grid has emerged.
Another strong platform for pre-Grand Prix talent is the FIM JuniorGP championship that will roam across Italy, Portugal and Spain for seven fixtures between April and November. KTM RC4 R bikes will also be speeding around circuits in Germany and Austria for the ‘KTM Junior Cup powered by ADAC’: a championship that is also part of the ‘Road to MotoGP’ pyramid designed to empower the next generation of racer.
2024 MotoGP begins in a matter of days with the Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar at the Lusail International Circuit from March 8-10. Red Bull KTM Ajo tasted Moto3 success at the venue in 2021 and Moto2 glory in 2020.
