[kropotkin thinks...] - Tech3 To Switch To KTM From 2019

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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After the bombshell announcement last Thursday that Tech3 would be parting ways with Yamaha after 20 years of cooperation, confirmation comes today that the French team will be collaborating with KTM from the 2019 season onwards. As of next year, Tech3 will race KTM RC16s in MotoGP.

Tech3's*choice of KTM had been widely expected, for a lot of the reasons given in our article on the team's split with Yamaha. KTM have the budget to provide extended support for satellite bikes which Aprilia, and to a lesser extent Suzuki lack. KTM are also more open to closer collaboration with a satellite team than Yamaha were.

This appears to have been a decisive factor for the Tech3 team. Team boss Hervé Poncharal has long wanted access to newer machinery than Yamaha were willing to offer. Tech3 woud always be left with the previous year's machinery: on the evening after the final race of each season at Valencia, the factory bikes would be wheeled out of the factory Yamaha garage and into Tech3. Updates during the season were rare, though not entirely unknown.