The Pierer Mobility Group have pumped plenty of financial resources into the Motocross world over the years in both the MXGP and MX2 World Championships. The group has consisted of three brands which have all had factory setups in the paddock: KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas.
We recently reported that the KTM group would be making changes for the 2025 season and that Husqvarna would no longer run a factory support team in the MXGP paddock next year. With the Nestaan Husqvarna team doing such a great job developing Kay de Wolf and Lucas Coenen that is a bit of a shame.
Our understanding is that GasGas will also not have a factory team in MXGP for the 2025 season either leaving KTM as the main focus. In MotoGP, it was recently announced that GasGas won’t have a factory team and instead they’ll run four KTM factory riders. We believe a similar approach will be taken in MXGP as well.
Pit Beier who is the KTM Motorsports Director recently stated the following regarding the changes in MotoGP (quote courtesy of crash.net):
“I think we made some great publicity for GasGas. It’s still the youngest brand in our family and through Pedro Acosta and what Jorge Prado does for us in motocross, the brand is now famous all around the world. On the other side, we decided to commit really fully to KTM. The market is also facing a difficult moment out there and for our project I find it always somehow difficult if you talk to a top rider, ‘Yeah, but is it the GASGAS or is it the KTM? What’s the difference between the bikes?’ At the end we said, ‘you know what, it was a great time showing different brands but we feel the project is the strongest if it’s a line-up with four riders, [all] Red Bull KTM”.
So, what does this mean for MXGP? We had previously mentioned that budget cuts will be made and there might only be two factory teams with Nestaan running the official KTM factory effort but rumours now suggest that the existing factory teams will all remain but all run KTM machinery. If all three teams do remain that is positive news as there shouldn’t be too many less rides available within the teams.
It means the existing KTM factory team will remain as well as the Nestaan Husqvarna and de Carli setups but those two setups are expected to run KTM equipment from 2025.
With regards riders it remains to be seen which riders will be under each awning and if there will be any in house changes. Cas Valk who is battling for the EMX250 title this year is expected to move up to the MX2 World Championship in 2025 and may well find a spot within one of the three KTM supported teams.
It’ll also be interesting to see if the officially supported EMX250 team of Beddini GasGas will remain or if they will also make the switch to KTM.
