Even the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Car Racing League
KTM has announced that it has parted ways with its MotoGP technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini after failing to agree terms on a contract extension.
Sterlacchini arrived as a star signing at KTM in 2021, and is seen as a major coup for the company as he was seen as the right-hand man to Ducati technology guru Gigi Dall'Igna during the period when the Ducati Desmosedicis went from flawed and limited machines to the dominant force in MotoGP.
His arrival as technical director came as part of a restructuring of sorts, which soon saw team boss Mike Leitner replaced as KTM team manager by Pramac team boss Francesco Guidotti. Further appointments from KTM to Ducati followed the following year.
But Sterlacchini's contract was up for renewal – and the news that he and KTM would go their separate ways was broken by Italian outlet GPOne over the German Grand Prix weekend, before being confirmed on the series' official broadcast by KTM's motorsport boss Pitt Beirer.
Pierer, pictured below, told MotoGP.com that it had been a “stormy” week for KTM.
“Fabiano's contract had already expired at the end of last month, so we had some discussions in recent weeks and of course we tried to renew a three-year contract with him.
“But in the end we couldn't agree on some things.”
Perrier said Sterlacchini was homesick, but that was not the “main excuse” for not agreeing a contract renewal.
He praised Sterlacchini's efforts in helping to put the project on “a very stable footing at the moment.”
“We have a lot of great people. We've had them with him over the last three years, and I'm happy with what he's done.
“We agreed that we didn’t want to get into deep discussions about why we didn’t want to continue together, but there was no contract breaker. He was at the end of his contract and we couldn’t come to a suitable agreement for the future. Overall, he left KTM as a friend.”
But he also said: “I'm not happy that we couldn't finish what we started together. We had a plan and a mission, and somehow we had to give up on that.”
KTM currently sits third in the MotoGP constructors' standings, two points behind Aprilia but well behind leaders Ducati.
The car has not won a premier class Grand Prix since 2022, although Brad Binder took two sprint race wins last year – and the emergence of rookie Pedro Acosta in the MotoGP championship means its medium-term title hopes look stronger than ever.
