A new piece of the puzzle for the 2023 MotoGP starting grid fell into place at the San Marino Grand Prix, when KTM agreed a deal with current Moto2 World Championship leader, Spaniard Augusto Fernandez, to race in the premier class next season with the GasGas Tech3 team, which will continue to field the RC16s supplied by the Austrian manufacturer. His place in the KTM Ajo team in Moto2 will instead be taken by his Spanish colleague Albert Arenas.
Fernandez, who is in his sixth season in the intermediate class, has signed a one-season contract with an option in favor of the manufacturer to extend it for another year until the end of 2024. His current teammate in Ajo, Pedro Acosta , he should move to MotoGP by that date, even if it is not known whether he will join the Tech3 team or the official line-up, as the rider would like.
As it happens, after signing with Aki Ajo at the end of 2021 to fill one of the vacancies left by Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez, Augusto’s first weeks with the KTM-Ajo Moto2 team were complicated and Ajo himself had said to look for an alternative for 2023.
However, after six empty races, the results arrived and the Majorcan rider climbed to the top of the standings, becoming a clear contender for the title after four wins, six podiums and a total of eight top-five finishes in the last eight races. This and the departure of Gardner and Fernandez from the Tech3 team opened the doors of the renowned GasGas to him.
Waiting for official confirmation, Augusto Fernandez is, for the moment, the only rookie in the premier class in 2023, and there may not be another one given that Ai Ogura, with whom he is fighting for the Moto2 championship, does not seem to have, for the moment, no intention of joining the LCR Honda team in place of Takaaki Nakagami, as Honda would like instead. Everything suggests, therefore, that Taka will continue to hold his current position for another year.
Arenas goes to KTM Ajo in Moto2
Once Augusto’s move to MotoGP is confirmed, a place in the Ajo Moto2 team will be freed up, alongside Acosta, for the current GasGas Aspar rider Albert Arenas.
The 25-year-old Spaniard has been in the World Championship for eight years, the last two in Moto2, and always tied to KTM, the bike with which he won the Moto3 title in 2020 within the Aspar facility.
Arenas is not achieving the desired results after the jump in Moto2, where after 32 races he has not yet managed to get on the podium. This has led Aspar to inform him that he will not be able to count on him in 2023 to make way for one of his two current riders in Moto3.
However, the driver’s agent, the same one who manages Pol Espargaro, will put him in the KTM Ajo facility for 2023.
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