MotoGP | KTM: Beirer confirms the departure of technical director Sterlacchini

Fabiano Sterlacchini’s adventure in KTM lasted only three years. After a very long period in Ducati, where he was effectively Gigi Dall’Igna’s right-hand man, the Italian engineer surprisingly decided to leave Borgo Panigale in 2021 to join the Mattighofen company as technical director.

Today, at the Sachsenring, his absence in the garage did not go unnoticed and the confirmation of his farewell to KTM came directly from the Motorsports Director of the Austrian brand, Pit Beirer, who did not hide the fact that there was no way to renew the contract which expired a few days ago, on June 30th.

“That’s true. It’s been quite a busy week for us. Fabiano’s contract expired at the end of last month, so we’ve been talking for the last few weeks. Of course we tried to renew, we worked on a new three-year contract with him, but we couldn’t find an agreement,” Beirer admitted.

“The distance from his home, which is quite far from our headquarters, was one factor, but I don’t want to use that as the main excuse. We couldn’t agree on some things and that’s why we decided to part ways,” he added.

The former German driver also denied that there was a worsening of internal relations behind this separation. Indeed, he reiterated that he would have liked to continue the collaboration with the Italian coach.

“I am not happy that we cannot finish what we started together. We had a plan, a mission and we had to give it up. I really want to emphasize that Fabiano leaves as a friend and will remain a friend of KTM. He wants the best for our project in the future and was responsible for some of the people he brought from outside to us. We will continue in this direction, but without him.”

The reference is to the many people who followed Sterlacchini, making the transition from Ducati to KTM. Just think of the team manager Francesco Guidotti, who arrived after a long experience in Pramac. But also the engineers Christian Pupulin, who followed Jack Miller, and Alberto Giribuola, known for his past as technical chief first of Andrea Dovizioso and then of Enea Bastianini.

“We have an excellent staff and excellent engineers who will take over from him. He has created areas in our project that we were not covering. We have gone in a different direction. I think our project is now on a much more stable basis, also thanks to the excellent people we have found with him over the last three years. I am satisfied with what he has done.”

“There’s just one thing we haven’t agreed on, we don’t want to go into the details of not continuing together, but the contract hasn’t been broken, it was about to end and we haven’t reached an agreement for the future. Again, the distance from his home didn’t help,” he concluded.