Guenther Steiner "happily staying out” of Maverick…

Guenther Steiner "happily staying out” of Maverick Vinales/KTM contract saga

Tech3 CEO Guenther Steiner says he is "happily staying out" of the ongoing contract dispute between Maverick Vinales and KTM, insisting the matter has nothing to do with him or his team.

Vinales caused a stir on Thursday ahead of the German Grand Prix when he claimed that KTM had offered him a new deal for 2027, which he subsequently signed, only to be told just weeks later it was no longer valid.

This followed previous comments from the 10-time grand prix winner, in which he heavily criticised the way the Austrian manufacturer had handled his contract situation and the lack of confidence it had shown in his recovery from injuries.

Although Vinales races for Tech3, both he and team-mate Enea Bastianini are directly contracted by the factory, with both deals signed long before Steiner’s consortium took over the French squad.

The former Haas Formula 1 team boss has never been happy about Vinales publicly blaming KTM for being left without a seat next year, and said the dispute is strictly between rider and manufacturer.

“I'm not involved with his contract. It's a KTM contract,” he stressed. “I've got opinions, but I cannot have an opinion. I normally don't read a lot of the articles, because then you get influenced about your thinking, but I saw the headlines and I said, ‘I hope I'm not in the middle of this, because it has nothing to do with me personally or with Tech3’.

“It has nothing to do with it, because it's a contract between Maverick and KTM, and I don't know what was done. If people tell me what they did, then I would need to check if it is true or not, but that's not my position.

"I'm happily keeping out of that. I've got enough on my plate, to be honest. So I let them sort that one out because honestly, I do not know his contract. I've never seen it, you know, and by the way, I don't want to see it, because then again, it's like, either you're part of it or not, and I'm not."

Maverick Vinales, Red Bull KTM Tech 3 (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images)

Vinales was initially offered a move up to the factory squad for 2027, but his poor form at the start of the season due to the lingering effects of a previous injury led KTM to reconsider its plans.

The Mattighofen marque recently announced that it has signed Alex Marquez and Fabio di Giannantonio from Ducati, while Tech3 is now aiming to pair Honda’s Luca Marini with a Moto2 graduate for the start of MotoGP’s 850cc rules era.

Vinales had already conceded that his chances of staying in MotoGP next year are all but over, citing KTM’s decision to snub him from the first official 850cc test at Brno last month.

Steiner also suggested the relationship between Vinales and KTM may now be beyond repair.

"Somehow, with the situation what we just discussed, it's very difficult to fix that situation because it is not a good situation," he added. "If you go in the press against each other, you know….

“So, in the end, we still work with KTM in the future, so we have to do something that he feels happy as well and I don't think he feels happy to be in this stable.

“But at the moment, as I said, we are speaking with a few riders and we haven't made a decision."

Steiner on Marini’s Tech3 chances

Luca Marini, Honda HRC (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images)

While both Vinales and Bastianini are currently employed by KTM, Steiner revealed that Tech3 will directly hire its riders for 2027, giving the team greater control over its line-up.

"They will be Tech3 contracts," he said. "That was the past, because when we took the company this year, contracts were all in place, but the future going forward, we go our own way."

Steiner admitted that Marini would be a good fit for Tech3, having already earned a strong reputation at HRC for his technical know-how, but denied that the team has already signed him for next year.

"I spoke with a few riders because I want to get to know them, if they join the team, because you not only get a guy who rides a bike, you get a person who needs to be part of the team and they need to fit in also to the team,” he said.

“So I met with a few people. I didn't know Luca before and I think he's a very blessed guy, and obviously, he has got lots of experience and maybe he can help us to get better, but we have not made the final decision, just to be clear about that one, what we are going to do."