Jorge Martin had already lost to Enea Bastianini in the battle for a place in the Lenovo Ducati Team in September 2022Why “Beast” he had achieved four victories that season and a fantastic third place in the World Championship aboard Gresini’s Ducati.
At the same time, however, Bastianini had made himself unpopular with the Ducati top management on several occasions because he had fought tirelessly against title contender Bagnaia when world champion Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) had challenged him extensively for the title.
On the occasion of the 2022 Misano GP, Martin announced that he would race with Pramac Racing for another year, after which he was determined to join an official MotoGP team. However, after narrowly missing out on the title fight and following a sensational season, he had remained with Pramac for another year, where he had thrilled team owner Paolo Campinoti at Spielberg 2021 with the first MotoGP victory of the Pramac Ducati era (started in 2005).
When it was clear that Marc Márquez would join the Ducati Lenovo team after a first year (so far without victories) due to his merits and his speed with last year’s GP23, but that the “Martinator” he wouldn’t have done it even after four seasons of Desmosedici, the 26-year-old Spaniard therefore got serious and moved to Aprilia Racing for two years as Aleix Espargaró’s successor.
Like Aleix Espargaró, Jorge Martin is also managed by Albert Valera, who negotiated the lucrative Ducati deal for Jorge Lorenzo in 2017 and 2018 (25 million euros for two years) and has made a name for himself in the industry as a skilled thread weaver. Thanks to the deal for Aleix Espargaró, he has long been a good and reliable acquaintance of Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola.
Runner-up Martin’s decision recently gave momentum to the transfer business, as Marc Márquez was officially appointed to the Lenovo team and Enea Bastianini took over from the exceptionally talented Pedro Acosta at GASGAS Tech3.
However, Jorge Martin’s return to KTM was never seriously in question.
The Madrilenian, who dominated the Moto3 World Championship with Gresini-Honda in 2018, had made himself unpopular with Pierer Mobility in KTM during the 2020 season.
The talented Jorge Martin had played his only season in Moto2 with the Red Bull KTM Ajo team, and had fought for the world title, winning the important Austrian GP for KTM and then in Valencia.
In the summer, Jorge was still a title contender before having to take a break due to a Covid infection and dropped to fourth place.
Meanwhile, he had already signed a Ducati MotoGP contract with Pramac for 2021.
KTM wanted to honor the option on him at the end of June 2020 and sign him for the 2021 Team Tech3 KTM MotoGP.
However, Albert Valera had insisted on a contractual clause which stated: if at the end of June KTM does not have a rider in the top ten of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship, Jorge Martin will be able to look for another MotoGP team.
The catch of the story: Due to the Covid pandemic, the 2020 season only started on July 19 in Jerez.
Valera was of the opinion that Martin could say goodbye to KTM because the Austrians were unable to produce a top ten rider in the World Championship.
KTM Motorsport director Pit Beirer then responded: “But we don’t even have a driver outside the top ten. Because we haven’t played a race yet and therefore there is no championship ranking. Unfortunately, the pilot and the manager did not trust us and therefore chose the emergency exit”.
After some back and forth, KTM didn’t want to keep Martin on board, who was intent on leaving. For a penalty/tip of 40,000 euros, he was given the green light for Pramac Ducati.
“Martinator” had already been considered by KTM CEO Stefan Pierer and Motorsport Director Pit Beirer as the preferred candidate for the 2021 MotoGP World Championship at the 2018 Valencia GP, when the Austrians had tried to convince him to take Johann’s place Zarco in the four-pronged KTM MotoGP team in 2020. However, Martin and his manager Albert Valera (who also managed Jorge Lorenzo) wanted to win the Moto2 World Championship before switching classes in 2020.
“We are not very enthusiastic about this manager’s approach”Pit Beirer declared indignantly at the time. “Because at the end of the day, we are financing the entire Moto2 project to have riders in our group who will move to MotoGP as soon as they are ready.”
So the bridges between Jorge Martin and KTM were torn down four years ago: the porcelain vase had shattered.
This was Beirer’s sentence: “If someone leaves us hanging in the coronavirus phase, we will think twice if we want that rider to return to the family sooner or later.”
Red Bull KTM then participated in MotoGP in 2021 with Binder and Oliveira in the Factory Team, while Tech3 signed Petrucci and at the last moment Iker Lecuona.
Jorge Martin and Albert Valera had already rejected KTM CEO Stefan Pierer and Pit Beirer at the 2018 Valencia GP, when the Austrian manufacturer wanted to transfer the exceptional rider directly from Moto3 to MotoGP after winning the Moto3 title (with seven victories that season), because one of KTM’s four MotoGP seats was vacant following the departure of Johann Zarco. But Martin first wanted to win the 2020 Moto2 World Championship. The one who benefited from the situation was, in fact, Iker Lecuona.
After all, Jorge Martin not only raced for Red Bull KTM in 2020, but also in the Rookies Cup: 2nd place overall behind Karel Hanika in 2013, overall victory ahead of Stefano Manzi in 2014.
At the time, KTM executives’ anger at Jorge Martin’s departure was understandable. Firstly, an undisputed talent had been lost and, secondly, the “MotoGP Academy” internally with the Ajo, Poncharal, Aspar Martinez and Liqui Moly teams Husqvarna is funded with a lot of money to nurture talented young MotoGP riders internally, and not for the competition, which is only sporadically represented in the smaller GP classes.
