Hervé Poncharal, the iconic boss of the Tech3 team present in MotoGP and in Moto3 with KTM, was kind enough to come out of his silence to give our traditional update at the end of the off-season tests.
Of course, this year, this very long conversation also has, and perhaps above all, an extra-sporting character, due to the financial difficulties encountered by KTM, the firm which equips the Bormes-les-Mimosas structure.
But as usual, the experienced man who is also President of IRTA, the teams' association, was kind enough to answer all our questions in all frankness. Thanks to him!
Hervé Poncharal, you have been relatively discreet, and we understand that, during this winter, above all, we presume, given the uncertainty that reigned around KTM. But today, now that the sky seems to be clearing and all the tests have come to an end, you probably still have things to say. We can talk about KTM, the MotoGP tests, the upcoming championship, lots of things...
Hervé Poncharal: "Indeed, and you have rightly pointed this out, to be completely clear and frank, We were really informed and understood the extent of the financial problems affecting the Pierer Mobility group, and therefore KTM, at the last race of the championship which was Barcelona., and the days that followed. Because until we arrived in Barcelona, we had no particular information. Well, yes, we knew that the market was not excessively buoyant for all manufacturers and perhaps our manufacturer KTM would have been a little more impacted. But that's it, the information was that, and everyone was of course working to finish our 2024 season as well as possible, which had been quite successful, and to prepare for 2025 with the first stage which was the Barcelona test with two new riders, Bastianini and Vinales. And then, we were already fully into everything we do during the off-season, that is to say the months of December-January. In Barcelona we began to understand that things were much more serious and we were informed that there were big problems, and even in Barcelona we did not imagine that it could go to the point that it did. And from Barcelona until the end of January, The news that arrived almost every day was more and more worrying.. On the other hand, of course, when things like this happen with such an iconic manufacturer, a lot of people talk and that's normal, but there are also a lot of people who talk without knowing the reality of the case. And of course when a situation like that arises, when it's your main partner who is impacted as it is, that Every word must be weighed and considered before being pronounced, the correct attitude to have is to stay below. Especially since we were not directly concerned since our company is Tech3, we were impacted by the fact that we have contractual relations with the manufacturer KTM, but it was not up to us to express ourselves on the file. In any case, it was managed by administrators who were appointed by the creditors and by the Austrian government, and we did not have access to it. So there are a whole bunch of things that we did not know, that we could not know, and that is why, Out of respect for all parties concerned, I have taken the decision to remain very much in the background and very silent.. And that's the message I gave to my whole team, and I think it was the best attitude to have.
So the good news, and I think this is really the best news that could happen., whether it is for Tech3, for MotoGP or for the world of motorcycling in general, it is that the news is becoming more and more reassuring. Now, it must always be kept in mind that the crucial date will be February 25, 2025, where the safeguard plan that is currently being prepared and that will be presented to all creditors and the administrator, will be accepted and validated or refused and rejected. So that is the date, but from what we know, Everyone, current shareholders plus future investors, thinks that this company is excessively competitive : it's a great box. I know the working tool in Austria, the racing department, and for me it is the most beautiful of all the motorcycle racing departments that I have visited. I know Suzuki's, I know Honda's, I know Yamaha's, but it is true that they have an incredible working tool. All the production capacities there, it is the top of the top, there is really infrastructure, know-how, which makes this company, she won't disappear.
So, we will wait until February 25 for the safeguard plan to be studied and we will wait to know the position of all the people who will validate it or not, who are the creditors and the administrator, but the news is rather reassuring. We know that there are many investors who want to inject money into this group, and that the amounts that have been submitted to the people who manage this file are such as to make us say that things are much more reassuring than they were. More once again, let's wait for February 25th.
So obviously, when you experience a winter like that, and we often say this expression that I like, "to govern is to foresee", during the off season, during the winter break, there are a lot of things to prepare in terms of logistics, and logistics is also important to be efficient. Everyone works at the factory on the development of equipment to make it evolve. We, in our structure, whether it is at the personnel level, whether it is at the level of our vehicles, tools, finally everything that we call logistics, We tried to continue working as we had planned to do, as we do during all the off-seasons, even though there was this sword of Damocles hanging over us. We said “I hope we are not doing all this for nothing”, because it is clear that Tech3 has its contracts, with its drivers, with its partners, with the championship, and that These contracts are only valid and valid if Tech3 has carried out its mission. And Tech3's mission is to be present on the grid with Mavrick Vinales and Enea Bastianini at each event of the 2025 and 2026 championship.. But to do it, you need to have the riders, you need to have the technical team, the logistics, but also the bikes! You can't help but imagine that there are moments in our heads where we didn't say to ourselves "Wow! If things go wrong tomorrow, we could find ourselves without a bike and therefore unable to participate in the championship", and therefore unable to do our job.
It is true thatWe have always had an excessively positive and constructive feedback from our interlocutor, the first and almost unique at KTM, who is Pit Beirer, who is the director of Motorsport. He has always said “Whatever happens, there will be MotoGP, there will be the 4 riders at the start of the 2025 and 2026 championships. We have confidence”. But it is certain that you prefer not to express yourself in the media, you prefer to focus on what you have to do, and you pray that all the news which was sometimes relatively catastrophic, relayed by certain media, is not reality.
Some nights must have been difficult…
"Difficult nights. Afterwards, we know that a pilot is far from being a robot, he is a human being, and our pilots were indeed also confronted with all this influx of news and were asking themselves the same questions as us. So it is certain that it was important for us to speak to them, to speak to their management, to reassure them and tell them “Prepare yourselves as you prepare every year. That’s what we do. Do it on your own, turn off your phone, cut off your ties with the media, don’t read and don’t listen, you’re not the one who’s going to make things go one way or another anyway. All you can do is get to the first test in 2025, which is Sepang in Malaysia, as close as possible. That’s all we ask of you.”. And everyone did well to have this attitude, whether it was us at the Tech3 team level or our riders, because already in mid-January, we had some certainties that things were progressing favorably, since we spent a week in Austria assembling the bikes and sending our crates to Sepang.
Photo credit: KTM
So we knew that the Sepang tests would happen, that we had enough bikes, things to try and spare parts stock to be able to do these tests in Sepang and Buriram. And now today, well it turns out that we are talking about the last day of the winter testing campaign, and now we only have to wait a few days to attack the 2025 championship. But we did our 3 days in Sepang, we made a quick stop in Bangkok to do the championship presentation which was a world first, and we did our 2 days in Buriram, and KTM also did 3 days of shakedown with the two test riders who are Dani Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro before our 3 days in Sepang. So there you have it, whatever all the people who were telling us the end of the world, well the end of the world, you see what I mean, may have said, it is clear that the people who were giving us positive information were the ones who were telling the truth.
Alors Let's wait until February 25th anyway, but yes, we are still very, very confident. that we will be able to have a great 2025 season now.
Good. So now that we are a little reassured, a little, you say you like the maxim “to govern is to foresee”. At the time, was the worry such that you started to at least think about a solution in the case of a catastrophe like “KTM cannot line up motorcycles in 2025”? A plan B?
To be continued…
Herve Poncharal KTM MotoGP
Herve Poncharal KTM MotoGP
Herve Poncharal KTM MotoGP
Herve Poncharal KTM MotoGP
Herve Poncharal KTM MotoGP
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