Monday MotoGP Link Dump: Liberty vs The EU, More KTM Trouble, And Ducati's New Videos

By David Emmett |

As we head toward the final weeks of the year, a quick round up of the more important news items around MotoGP.

Liberty/Dorna deal not quite done

The biggest news of 2024 was undoubtedly the announcement that Liberty Media, owners of F1, were looking to purchase Dorna from Bridgepoint Capital. When the news was announced, Liberty Media were at pains to point out that they were aware that the last time F1's owners tried to buy MotoGP - CVC Capital in 2005 - the EU Competition Commission had blocked the sale. Liberty had put measures in place to address any potential concerns, the media conglomerate said.

It now looks like the EU Competition Commission will be wanting to take a closer look at the details of how Liberty intends to preempt those concerns. Last week, Bloomberg reported that EU officials are preparing a Phase II investigation into the deal over concerns that having the leading four-wheeled and two-wheeled motorsports series owned by the same company would give Liberty Media too much power in the broadcasting and streaming markets.

Under EU competition law, the Commission takes a two-step approach to mergers and acquisitions. In the first phase, Phase I, an initial investigation is held and companies are given a chance to remedy any concerns about excessive market power resulting from the merger. If the case is more complex, or there are additional concerns, then the Commission can launch a Phase II investigation, which is more in-depth analysis of the effects a merger may have on competition and market power.

According to Bloomberg, EU officials are preparing just such an in-depth investigation and analysis. However, as Bloomberg notes, this is not yet a foregone conclusion, as the Commission has until December 19th (this Thursday) to make a decision to either launch a Phase II investigation or approve the deal. The Competition Commission may also request more information from Liberty on how it intends to address concerns over concentration of power in the media market, which would extend the deadline by ten more days.

The fact that the EU Competition Commission should want to conduct a more thorough and in-depth investigation into the problems of having both F1 and MotoGP owned by the same company is not necessarily a surprise, nor does it mean that the merger will be rejected. However, it does put a lot of power in the broadcasting market into the hands of one company.

Demonstrating to the EU Competition Commission that there are safeguards and firewalls in place to ensure that it does not use that power to pressure broadcasters into accepting certain conditions on one series in order to obtain the rights for the other is a complicated process. The Commission has 90 working days once a Phase II investigation has been launched to complete it, possibly delaying the takeover until the end of April.

KTM - unpaid salaries, bonuses, and another insolvency

KTM's financial woes are well known. Massive overstock and missed sales targets in both its motorcycle and bicycle business has forced the Austrian manufacturer to file for a preliminary form of bankruptcy protection.

But it seems its problems are getting worse. Two labor organizations - the Arbeiterkammer, the national representative body for employees in Austria, and manufacturing unions PRO-GE and GPA - have issued statements condemning KTM for failing to meet its commitments to pay workers an advance on their December salaries previously promised. Workers had already been told that they would not be receiving their salaries for November or their December bonuses, and that they would have to apply for payment to the Insolvenz-Entgelt-Fonds, a state-backed fund which guarantees worker wages in case of insolvency.

The PRO-GE union called KTM's failure to pay the promised wages 'a slap in the face for those affected'. The Arbeitskammer president Andreas Stangl said in a statement that workers could not rely on the word of KTM management any longer.

In statements to the press, Stangl went further. "It's unheard of that a company in bankruptcy protection would withdraw a commitment like this. Mr Pierer has his millions, our people are left with the worries," he told the Austrian news outlet Oberösterreichischen Nachrichten.

Speaking to Austrian broadcaster ORF, Stangl was even more critical. "Mr Pierer has cashed in his dividends and his millions. And right now, staff have to go into the red and can't afford anything. If they had any decency, they would pay the workers their money so they have enough for Christmas." According to the accounts of the Pierer Mobility Group, €17.1 million was paid out in third-party dividends in the first half of 2024. Pierer Mobility Group is 74.9% owned by Pierer Bajaj AG, and 25% publicly traded.

In a statement to Oberösterreichischen Nachrichten, a KTM spokesperson said that the plan was for the company to pay out salaries for December, January, and February as normal, meaning that the people working for KTM and its subsidiaries would receive their pay at the end of the month as normal.

The unions and employee organizations were not the only people to criticize KTM CEO Stefan Pierer. In an interview with GPOne.com, MXGP legend and KTM stalwart Antonio Cairoli's manager Alberto Martinelli said that he had always had concerns about Pierer. "Pierer always felt invulnerable," Martinelli said. The Austrian billionaire believed his choices were always right, which may have left him to misjudge the market. He had 'delusions of grandeur', Martinelli said, and had always had a very aggressive attitude to business.

That aggressiveness was perhaps one reason why Pierer had missed the signals from the market and as a consequence, led KTM into its current dire financial straits. With the 'production pause' introduced by KTM moved up a week earlier, starting on Friday December 13th and set to continue through January and February, KTM suppliers are starting to feel the pain. Another KTM subsidiary, the foundry Vöcklabrucker Metallgießerei (VMG) has filed for bankruptcy protection.

VMG was taken over by KTM Components, one of the three KTM companies to file for bankruptcy protection, in September. The company makes swingarms, gearboxes, and wheel hubs for KTM, among other things, and relies on KTM for half of its turnover. KTM's production pause means essentially that half of VMG's production has to pause as well.

The first creditors' report and hearing for the three KTM companies filing for bankruptcy protection - KTM AG, KTM Components, and R&D arm KTM F&E - is set for December 20th. A second hearing will take place on January 24th of 2025, with a final vote being taken by the creditors on February 25th. At that February hearing, creditors holding at least 50% of the debt have to agree to the restructuring plan.

KTM's failure to honor previously made commitments will not help its cause. The firm has filed for bankruptcy protection under so-called self-administration, which allows the existing management board to stay in place and oversee the restructuring. Failing to honor commitments to its workers is not likely to fill the company's creditors with confidence. And that is precisely what KTM CEO Stefan Pierer so badly needs.

For the best reporting on KTM's situation, I strongly recommend reading Gerald Dirnbeck's work over on Motorsport Total. Gerald has been excellent at setting out exactly what is happening, and giving a clear overview of the causes and effects of KTM's financial problems.

Reading/watching recommendations

If you want to know why KTM ended up falling so far behind after such a strong start to the 2024 MotoGP season, veteran MotoGP journalist Peter McLaren has a superb interview with Jack Miller over on Crash.net. In it, Miller talks about development, and the carbon fiber chassis KTM has been using.

And if video is more your thing, Ducati started the first episode of their behind-the-scenes documentary cataloging Pecco Bagnaia's failed 2024 MotoGP title defense on YouTube. Filmed by Ducati, the series has unique access both inside and outside the team.

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Comments

proving to be more dire than first thought. If they can manage anything by this stage of their catastrophic financial quandary, let it be that they pay their staff what they're owed.

"According to the accounts of the Pierer Mobility Group, €17.1 million was paid out in third-party dividends in the first half of 2024."

This is what bugs me from the corporate perspective: How can KTM pay millions in dividends to share holders if the company is on the verge of bankruptcy? Management will have been well aware of the financial health in H1 2024 before authorizing such payouts. It's just one symbol of what's wrong with business writ large today.

It’s no surprise that it’s come to this; I’ve worked in the trade since the mid-eighties in the U.K. and worked with KTM dealers, both established and new ones coming on board. What has always permeated through the trade is how aggressive they are in pushing the brand ‘forward’. The acquisitions, the ultimatums handed out to loyal dealers who’ve backed them when they were just an off road player, and the increasing quality issues pointed to a rapidly expanding company that were speeding down the track at 1,000 miles an hour while all sorts of important cargo was spilling out onto the track. They are an aggressive, cocksure, hyper confident brand that truly believe that however many machines they built, they would be sold, form an orderly queue. Covid? Nah, that won’t hold us back..
If they’d have stopped at a couple of those stations they sped through, took a look around and listened to a few folk they might have been a bit better informed and chose a different direction. But you can’t do that if you don’t want to listen to anything or anybody. 
KTM are a vibrant, exciting and confident brand, but as the story  unfolds and yet more unravels, I really do wonder if they can stem the flow? Corporate arrogance on a staggering level: Ready to Race?  

This is an interesting bit from the article David linked to -

KTM has a stock of 130,000 unsold motorcycles. What will happen with the entire stock is open. From 2025, the Euro 5+ emission regulations will apply in Europe for motorcycles.

It doesn't mention what percentage of those 130,000 bikes are Euro 5+ compliant but if they're not, then they'll have to try and shift them outside of Europe.

the ECUs on these machines are capable of being factory flashed to meet what is really only a deeper emissions test for Euro 5+. I work with a brand and half the models can be adapted and half will need derogating. In the U.K. as I understand it, if there’s more than 100 units of a specific model it’ll need pre-registering. I don’t know KTM’s situation or where their bikes are by market but again, another very serious issue. My summary of their ‘full steam ahead’ style is perfectly encapsulated by the staggering 130,000 of unsold units. Those bikes all have a market and all are by degree popular in their model niche but to over-produce to such a gargantuan degree suggests there’s few, if any, windows in Mattighofen

This is interesting to me, as just a few days ago I saw a Gulf sign towering over a gas station a few hundred km from my home in California. I’m old enough to remember the Ford GT and of course Porsche 917 in Gulf livery but I’m not sure I’d ever since a Gulf service station here. Since Trackhouse is American, maybe there’s a tie-in with expanded presence in the US, though apparently it’s now just a licensed brand and not a real oil company. 

I keep reading about how Acosta will, no, must land on a competitive bike after all of this. That the KTMs will be 'dead' bikes on the grid, no development despite any current promises or tests and therefore the sport or Dorna or whatever must render Acosta to a better place. That means Ducati or Aprilia. If that was to happen, who gets the chop to make way ? One of the rookies ? Hardly seems right. To be honest if I had to choose between Acosta and Alex, Digi, Franco or Raul, i'd take Acosta but all of those guys have contracts, signed. Again, not right. You make your bed and then you lie in it. Honda ? Yamaha ? Same same, regardless of the bike, they all got contracts. 

Maybe I'm being mean but he could have moved to any bike on the grid. Instead he chose to stick with KTM who haven't got much of a track record when it comes to riders and contracts. It seems neither Acosta or his management knew of the problems before they signed. KTM management must have known so that might be an easy way out for Acosta. Or is it a failure in due diIigence ? Whole thing stinks, Dorna must have been aware of something.

Maybe P Acosta has some sense of loyalty, if not so much to KTM (I don't doubt he's aware of how they treat their riders on a regular basis), but perhaps to Aki Ajo? Or he felt it would be a good thing to stick with his crew and crew chief, for continuity's sake: "If I did this well in my first year with these people and this bike, next year should be even better." (I'm not being argumentive, btw, this is just my supposition.)

Also, if it got to where the KTM teams could not be on the grid, I would not bet against Dorna finding a way to arrange another ride for Acosta. As in, suddenly, expanding the grid to something more than the existing teams would be completely possible.

A sense of loyalty that should be respected and applauded all the way through next year no matter how bad the bike/team performs. No KTM ? They have to keep him riding. KTM struggling but on the grid ? He has a ride, let it be. It's the notions that, as KTM cannot progress and give him competitive bike, he must be moved to a Ducati, which I think are wrong. Fabio deserves better than the current Yamaha ? Well it would be nice but no, he deserves everything that comes with the contract and the coin. 

BTW I haven't read anything negative from Acosta and I doubt I ever will. Fairly sure he will accept the ups/down of his choice and do his best.

I definitely agree with you that as long as KTM is on the grid and Acosta is under contract to them, he should (and will, I'm reasonably certain) stay on the bike through the contract. Though perhaps that might change for him after 2025 (his contract is through '26, right?). Well, unless he can buy his way out after a year, like Marquez (I should note that I didn't care for that move but since I believe workers should be able to that kind of thing, I accepted it; my dislike of it is mostly due to my not being an M Marquez fan.) Your comment on Fabio Q is also correct, in my opinion.

Marquez did not "buy his way out", the contract was terminated by mutual agreement. 

“Honda Racing Corporation and Marc Márquez have mutually elected to terminate their four-year contract prematurely at the end of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship season,” HRC announced in a statement.

But realistically Honda had no choice, he had a publicity gun to their head. What were their options, force him to ride? Pay him not to? There was no arguing the bike was underperforming but Marquez himself has stated previously he stymied development that suited his team-mates, so the fault is not Honda's alone. But the guy is a God in many parts of Europe, so Honda had no option but chow down on the $hit sandwich they had been served up, they were never going to win a publicity war.

I'm ambivalent towards Marquez, but to leave in such a way just doesn't sit right: if you sign up for the rewards and security of a long term contract you must accept the risk. Except Marc chose to blow up the relationship the same way Vinales tried to blow up that M1. Life is all about light and shade, to expect blazing sunshine every waking hour is just unrealistic, so you put your head down and work through the dark times....unless you are Marc Marquez.

The myopic vision, right up to the end, baffles me. Part of me admires the all consuming desire to win but it also smacks of instant gratification: it's all about being on a bike that can win now, rather than building towards something. I mean, even when it was obvious the bike wasn't great in 2023 it could have been a comprehensive rebuilding/testing season, every GP a fantastic testing/comparison opportunity, with an assault on 2024.....instead he kept hurling the thing into the bushes trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse rather than adjust his attitude/goals. So yeah, equal parts admiration and bemusement here. 

Not forgetting he was in a unique position with brother Alex also on the Honda, which seems a great development opportunity gone begging. If you can't build something better with your brother who can you build it with? And obviously once Alex had the revelatory experience of the Gresini Ducati Marc chose the nuclear option as a shortcut to another championship chance.

So yeah, can't help admiring the guy, but not so much the way this has gone down. Part of why I doff my Shoei to Fabio, sure he's paid a lot of coin but he's in it for the long haul and working hard.

As for Acosta, I sure hope he is on a competitive KTM next year, but as special as he is I hope no ugly preferential precedent is set.

I try to be careful of what I write, but the way I phrased that does make it look like I was saying Marquez bought his way out. Poor writing on my part.

Honda is notorious for holding riders to the letter of their contracts: no testing on the new bike you're signed to ride next year until our contract ends. But that is a period of a couple of months, not an entire season. That entire year would have been a terrible look, and Marquez knew that. So, yes: gun at their heads.

Additionally, everything you said about Marquez and how he went about those seasons after he'd signed that incredibly long contract extension is exactly in line with my thinking. I can't help thinking that he had huge influence with the Honda engineers and could have pulled them in a direction that would have improved the bike. Maybe he felt similarly to Mick Doohan, as far as making the bike one that only he can win on and the other Honda riders be damned. Problem: even he wasn't regularly winning on the bike. He seemed to really double down on making the bike even more like it was. As they say: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

If the bike that Pol Espargaro had approved (I recall it being a longer/lower design, similar to the Ducatis of the time) hadn't been nixed by Marquez, they might not be in the situation they're in now. So some of the blame surely rests with Honda for not saying that maybe he should try this new, different concept bike (that's more in line with what's actually regularly winning), and figure out how to ride it. Maybe Honda has learned something from this episode.

We’re pretty passionate, switched on & intelligent folk on here, the great camaraderie and debate is a calmer place than most  and much valued. Because of this I know I can admire Seven4nineR’s well constructed post yet put a different view out there without us being thrown out of the bar, rolling in the gutter..!

 
I’m a big watcher/traveller to the races and, over the many years you see perceptions change, heroes become villains and vice-versa. Mark was always the proverbial fox in the hen house and for that reason, plus the often reckless ways of dispatching riders, he didn’t endear himself to me, though it was clear at some tracks he was adored (Jerez this year was on a par with Rossi at Mugello, or very close); and at others despised; especially as it was becoming increasingly apparent this was another rider (after Stoner) who wasn’t going to be intimidated by Valentino. As the years progressed and it also became slowly apparent that the Honda was developing into the Widowmaker, injuring and baffling previously good solid riders into the bargain. Marc hugely valued Cal’s data traces-though many just dismissed him as ‘Crashlow’- because he pushed harder than any others on Hondas and Marc did say it often showed him what wouldn’t work come race day if the pushing was taken just a little further-Marc further.. So from that point I began to respect MM93 more, but the bike continued to become ever more recalcitrant and continued to hurt him, and others. I’m not going to bother with the list but it’s there; personally I’m still pissed Jorge’s career was ended by it as I still reckon he’d got more. Some will say the throttle works both ways but clearly the Honda’s wayward nature was baffling the very best. 


Maybe watching the MM documentary made me realise just what it’s taken to get back there, and yes, he broke his contract, which can be certainly seen as selfish and a big PR win for Marc but Honda HAD to morally give way because they had continued to produce a dangerous bike that could not provide the most naturally talented rider of this generation with a machine that could remotely challenge, maiming their paid staff as it continued to sink. 
The stark difference with Fabio is, not only did Yamaha demonstrate just how much investment, manpower and even a potential V4 engine, that he was heartened, paid hugely, but wasn’t being absolutely physically battered by the poor M1, it wasn’t a grenade, it was just slow. 

So the unconventional way Marc has ended up on a factory bike has been very entertaining and made me respect Marc a bit more because he was about to quit-many others would have done already- and for me as a selfish fan, I’d like a few more years seeing the current crop pit their wits again Marc Marquez, if nothing else it will bring the absolute best out of them, and I’m going to three races this year to see how that goes-Jeez I’m even going to my own GP at Silverstone, I must be keen!

Seasons greetings everyone 😊

To paraphrase those immortal words: it's like deja-vu all over again.

Melandri actually had a decent year on that effort after Kawasaki pulled the pin. 

Different times, with much more complicated bikes, but if I was determined to reap the kudos associated with Motogp (why else are they involved, they even don't build a Superbike) with a team distilled down to the barest essence: a single bike developed for a single special rider, might just get them all the publicity/respect they need.....

....but it would really, I mean REALLY suck to be Brad Binder after the effort he has put in.

 

Interestingely on a local level there are no rumours or whatsoever hinting to a major change in KTM's MotoGP effort. I think there are some facts that have to be taken in account, if the old man Dietrich Mateschitz would be alive it would be much more likely that a deal for a Red Bull MotoGP team would happen. He had the freedom in his business decisions despite being the minority owner of the Red Bull brand, with his passing such decisions are now handed to the management staff, which is responsible to the owners ( remember the Horner affair a few month ago, with Dietrich still there it would likely ended viceversa ...). 

His son Mark Mateschitz now doesn't have the privilege his father was granted by the owners and he starts to act more like an investor than a sponsor or patron, like his father did in motorsports. Mark Mateschitz even started an investment together with Stefan Pierer and some banks to save the Rosenberger company, a renown manufacturer of fire fighting equipment (trucks!).

The main feeling at the moment, of those affected by the whole affair, is uncertainty and i guess there will be more surprising news or infobits in the upcoming weeks and months.

There are stories of a deepening financial crisis at VW.  It would be interesting to find anything out about Ducati's MotoGP financial situation, how much of it is bankrolled by the motorcycle company, how much by sponsors (doesn't look like much...), and how much by the parent company VAG.  I did once hear that their satellite operations at least break even or turn a profit, especially right now when they are so competitive that there is no pressure to run all bikes in current spec.