MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There are more financial problems building for KTM's parent company Pierer Mobility AG. According to the excellent and comprehensive reporting of Gerald Dirnbeck at Motorsport-Total.com, several things have happened.

• The administrator appointed to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings has forced PM AG to sell its holding in MV Agusta
• Pierer Mobility Group has called in the assistance of Citibank to help with an "ownership restructuring" and find financing
• Austria's Financial Market Supervision authority has opened an investigation into whether the Pierer Mobility Group informed investors in a timely fashion about its financial problems
• 50 more jobs at risk at KTM

Sale of MV Agusta

KTM's financial difficulties continue to cause headlines, with the group owner Pierer Mobility Group filing for bankruptcy protection on Friday. There have been a number of developments since then, including reports of a development pause over the winter for the MotoGP project. So here is a summary of where things stand as of today. Before reading this, it would be helpful to read the previous story I wrote on KTM's financial issues.

What's going on?

On Friday, Pierer Mobility Group, the parent company of KTM, filed bankruptcy protection procedures (under Austrian law, judicial restructuring proceedings with self-administration) for three of its subsidiaries:

• KTM AG, the motorcycle division comprising the brands KTM, GASGAS, Husqvarna, and MV Agusta
• KTM F&E GmbH, a separate company which houses KTM's R&D department
• KTM Components GmbH, another separate company which produces a range of parts for KTM.

Why did KTM do this?

At the height of his domination of the 500 grand prix era, when the only question in everyone's minds was who would finish second behind him, Mick Doohan was asked by a journalist if he was worried his stranglehold on the sport was making motorcycle racing boring. "What do you want me to do, slow down?" Doohan retorted.

Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi would have been immeasurably improved if Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin had slowed down. Apart from the first seven or eight minutes, as the grid assumed its natural order, the race was utterly processional. Watching Bagnaia, Martin, Marc Márquez behind them, was like watching Doohan at his peak.

These are riders controlling a MotoGP machine at the highest level imaginable, putting a 300+ horsepower motorcycle in almost exactly the same place for lap after lap. Of the 24 laps of Motegi which Pecco Bagnaia completed, 10 were within one tenth of a second of the lap before, and another 7 were between one and two tenths difference to the previous lap. That is astonishing, metronomic consistency, and a sign of a truly great rider operating almost as close to perfection as is humanly possible.

The forecast was for rain at Motegi on Saturday, and rain certainly fell. Fortunately, most of it fell overnight, leaving MotoGP qualifying and the sprint race dry. Well, almost. The constant threat of rain hung in the air, spots of rain hitting visors in enough numbers to plant the seeds of doubt into the minds of the riders. And sometimes, hard enough to actually suck some of the grip away from the track.

If you are going to end up in those fickle conditions, where the track might be a little damp or it might not, then Motegi is the place to be. It has superb grip in the wet, riders managing 1'55s in absolutely torrential rain here in the 2023 race that was eventually red-flagged. But that doesn't make it any easier for riders to wrap their heads around, when drops start to spatter on their visors.

Those spots of rain ended up having a profound effect on qualifying. And they even had an impact on the race, perhaps denying Pedro Acosta his first sprint victory, though Acosta took all of the blame on his own shoulders.

For the past four years or so, there have been growing complaints about issues with Michelin's front tire. The increasing loads put on the front by the ride-height devices and by aerodynamics have raised temperatures and pressures, and the increasing size of aerodynamic wakes have made harder and harder to find fresh air to cool down the front tire by pulling out from behind the rider in front of you.

To address that, Michelin have been working on a new construction front tire. Initially, Michelin had planned to test it in 2020 and introduce it in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to that, with testing halted during that year, and by the time a normal testing schedule resumed, the bikes had changed so much, the role of ride-height devices and aerodynamics increased so much, that Michelin had to go back to the drawing table and redesign the front for the massive loads it now had to endure.

Managing a race is about managing expectations. You have to have a plan for the race. But you also have to have a plan for when your original plan goes to pieces, usually on first contact with reality. You can start the race with the desire to execute your plan as perfectly and precisely as possible. But it is good to have an idea of how to handle things when the plan goes wrong.

That is easier at some racetracks than at others. If, like Pecco Bagnaia at Misano, your plan after taking pole is to get away at the start and lead for the entire race, then you need to pull it off. If you don't, then everything about your bike will work against you, making any alternatives you might have had in mind look pretty forlorn.