Steiner picks KTM over Honda for Tech3 MotoGP 2027 plans
KTM has secured a new deal with satellite MotoGP team Tech3 for 2027 and beyond, successfully fighting off Honda's interest in the outfit.
Tech3 has been a partner team of KTM's since 2019, having sought and found greater integration with a manufacturer after a long time with Yamaha - with which it felt like more of a customer team.
KTM's well-documented financial troubles last year cast doubt not just on the Tech3 partnership but on the future of KTM's MotoGP programme altogether - and even once that was safeguarded, the Tech3 continuation remained a question mark.
This became doubly so when the team was taken over by new ownership, led by former Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner.
But now, after some months of deliberation that included conversations to become the third team under Honda's umbrella, Steiner has announced an extension with KTM during the Catalan Grand Prix weekend at Barcelona.
Tech3's new deal with KTM is a significant development also for the rider market.
It has fielded KTM-contracted riders through its time alongside the manufacturer, and currently has no riders officially committed for 2027.
But its current duo, Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini, are both known to be restricted in their 2027 free agency by one-year contract options that KTM has the right to pick up by a certain date.
KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer suggested to MotoGP.com on Friday that, while KTM will not want to keep riders against their will, it also doesn't want to just 'cancel' the options and hurt itself in the rider market.
Vinales, still looking to get back to his regular level of performance amid a long-standing shoulder injury saga, sounded amenable on Thursday to remaining with KTM - which would now mean a Tech3 continuation as the works seats appear filled by Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Team-mate Bastianini, however, is thought to be on the verge of a Trackhouse Aprilia switch - as long as he gets his release from KTM, which would then mean Tech3 and KTM need to recruit an outside option for 2027.