KTM has announced that Aki Ajo will lead the project as its new Team Manager for the 2025 MotoGP season, replacing the departing Francesco Guidotti.
Ajo’s racing team, Ajo Motorsport, has been affiliated with KTM since 2012, and the partnership has produced three Moto3 championships in 2012, 2016, and 2021.
From 2017, Ajo expanded KTM representation to Moto2, with his team claiming three consecutive titles from 2021-2023.
Current MotoGP riders Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta ride for the factory and satellite teams. Both riders have won the championship in the junior categories.
With Acosta joining Binder at the factory team for 2025, KTM believes that Ajo is the right fit based on previous working relations with both riders.
Ajo was chosen to lead the project in 2025 due to familiarity with KTM’s operations and staff and previous success in the junior categories.
Both Ajo teams in Moto3 and Moto2 will continue to develop riders as they progress up the two-wheeled ladder to the pinnacle.
The Finn stated: “It’s an honor to be offered this great new role and opportunity to work in MotoGP with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.
“At the moment MotoGP is at a very high level so we need to continue to work in many areas and use the strengths that we have to build this KTM package to an even better standard.
“We need to keep pushing but I think this project already has many good parts to be right at the very top; we have to manage them in the best way.
“Thank you to Stefan, Hubert, Pit and Jens and everyone in the KTM structure.”
KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer has his say on its new acquisition, believing that its existing relationship with Ajo is a massive advantage.
KTM is still in its infancy as a manufacturer in the premier class, having joined at the start of the 2017 season, with Ajo contributing to much of its success in Moto3 and Moto2 in its earlier years.
With KTM looking to make that extra step with arguably its greatest-ever MotoGP line-up from 2025, Beirer believes that Ajo joining was a no-brainer decision.
“We have a special relationship and a very close collaboration with Aki and so we felt this was the best decision to take the MotoGP project forward,” he said.
“I’ve said it before and will mention it again: he believed in us when we were just getting organized in this paddock, so the trust and the friendship is unmatched.
“His team’s success speaks for itself.
“He has won titles with both of the riders that will be in the pitbox for 2025 but that knowledge is just part of the skillset he will bring.
“We know we can count on a lot of pedigree and, of course, Aki knows our company and the way we race.
“I’m really pleased and proud that we are taking this challenge together and we are continuing a story that began a long time ago and has had so much success and great stories already.”
