Back in March 2021, MV Agusta CEO Timur Sardarov was keen to talk racing. The MV Agusta Forward Racing Team had joined Moto2 in 2019 and was still competing at that time. However, by January 2023, the pairing of MV and Forward Racing had dissolved, and Forward Racing announced that it would go its own way in the Moto2 series, without MV.
Before all that, though—Sardarov spoke about taking what MV had learned from racing in Moto2 and applying it to a future MotoGP effort. The intention, he said at the time, was to eventually make a move to MotoGP “later in this decade.”
It’s now 2023, and as I’m sure we’re all aware, a lot can change in two years. For one thing, KTM has since acquired a 25.1 percent stake in MV Agusta. As part of that deal, it’s also taken over distribution of MV Agusta bikes and parts, utilizing its vast distribution network to expand upon what MV was able to accomplish on its own.
For another thing, there seems to be an ongoing battle in the press between KTM and Pierer Mobility Group (KTM’s parent company) CEO Stefan Pierer and MV Agusta CEO Timur Sardarov regarding whether or not Pierer will eventually take full control of MV. Both Pierer (the man) and KTM executive board member Hubert Trunkenpolz have publicly declared their intention to do so. Shortly after that particular salvo, Timur Sardarov gave another interview in which he said no, absolutely not, MV Agusta will not be taken over by KTM or anyone else.
Fast-forward to the back half of July 2023, and Stefan Pierer is once again making his feelings known. He recently spoke to German publication Speedweek, where he reiterated his belief that KTM will, at the very least, obtain a majority stake in MV Agusta by the end of 2025.
That’s not all, though: Pierer also spoke once more about his company’s MotoGP ambitions. No, not the GasGas ones—the MV Agusta ones. To be fair, Pierer first raised that possibility back in December 2022. Bringing it up eight months later merely indicates that the idea is firmly lodged in his mind.
In the most recent interview, Pierer said that he sees possibilities opening up in 2027, when the new MotoGP rules and regulations go into effect. At that point, he thinks that it makes sense for MV Agusta to make a comeback and bank on its glorious racing history of decades past.
Why 2027? For those unfamiliar, MotoGP’s current technical rules system is determined once every five years by its three governing bodies. First, there’s Dorna, which is the promotional arm of the sport. Then there’s the International Road Racing Teams Assocation (IRTA), which represents the riders and teams. The final leg of the tripod is the Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers Assocation (MSMA), which gives the manufacturers an active stake in determining the future of the sport and its governance.
The current set of rules and regulations will remain in place through 2026. All stakeholders currently have an agreement to only change the rules once every five years, in the interest of keeping development costs down and also allowing teams with fewer resources to (theoretically) have a better shot at being competitive.
To be completely clear, we can’t begin to say what go down between the two OEMs. All we can say for sure is that it’s slightly past the halfway point of 2023. That means that there’s just under three and a half years to go before the magic year of 2027—and a whole lot can happen between now and then.
