Back in May it was confirmed that KRT would be expanding their rider line up for the 2025 season. The team have been fully focusing on the MXGP World Championship but for the upcoming season will also have a presence in the MX2 World Championship with a full factory rider.
It’s good news for the sport and will be nice to see a full factory Kawasaki rider contest MX2 once again.
We got the thoughts of KRT team manager, Antti Pyrhönen about the decision:
“Yeah, absolutely (looking forward to it). So yeah, we will run a factory MX2 team as well in 2025 with one rider and I am really excited for that and excited to work again with the young talents and really looking forward to that. Especially for that programme because we like to keep pushing hard, you know and try to get Kawasaki also some podiums and some exposure in that class as well. This is the way we are in competition as well for the future talents so to create type of pyramid as well for the Kawasaki structure that we can get our hands on the talent as well early enough”, Pyrhönen told GateDrop.com
Despite the fact KRT only plan to run one MX2 GP rider initially, they do intend on expanding even further for 2026 with another addition in the MX2 World Championship meaning two riders per class.
“Yeah, indeed. Indeed so that’s the goal (to run two MX2 GP riders in 2026) and like I mentioned, you know we need to be in hunt for the talent early enough to engage them for the MX2 class and make them successful on that one and even suddenly hopefully they become our future MXGP stars as well”, Pyrhönen confirmed.Â
With Giacomo Gariboldi recently confirming HRC Honda will run MX2 GP riders in 2025 (more here), Triumph entering the paddock this year and Ducati planning to enter MX2 in 2026, it’s nice to see more full factory rides being offered in the MX2 World Championship.
You can get our full interview with Pyrhönen below:
