CONTINUING THE MOTOGP™ TREND FOR EXCELLENCE

Niklas Ajo, overseer of Red Bull KTM Ajo’s line-ups in Moto3™ and Moto2™, is one of the newest and youngest team managers in the MotoGP paddock and has some large (but familiar) shoes to fill.

By Adam Wheeler.

The physical resemblance is clear. The mannerisms are similar. The calm voice and obvious level of focus are also reminiscent. Niklas Ajo, son of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MotoGP Team Manager Aki, is now charged with extending the success and achievement that Ajo Motorsport have brought to KTM and their Grand Prix efforts since 2012.

The list accumulated by Aki Ajo and his loyal crew is long and the names are significant: six titles in both classes with Acosta, Binder, Cortese, Augusto Fernandez, Gardner. Grand Prix wins for many more like Raul Fernandez, Martin, Masia, Miller, Nagashima, Oliveira, Rueda, Salom, Öncü, Vietti. For nearly 15 years the Ajo set-up has been a critical platform in the KTM GP Academy structure to help talent sprout from series’ like the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and FIM JuniorGP and then push through the pyramid to the elite of MotoGP.

While Aki, a former racer, was molding and guiding the youngsters he was also assisting in Niklas’ own career: the younger Fin rode for five years in the 125/Moto3 category and came close to being a consistent top ten runner in 2013. By 2015 he had unbuckled the helmet. “I was never the biggest talent,” he admits in 2025, sitting across the table in the Red Bull Energy Station at Lusail for the Qatar Grand Prix. “My approach to riding wasn’t always the correct one. I had the attitude that if the things were not coming then just close the eyes and push! I had some years where I was quite close to making it to the top…but I was not ready mentally. In the end my career was pretty short: I started quite late and everything happened quickly.”

Ajo Junior took a slightly slower route to his post-racing career; working at home in car dealership, feeling the draw back to GPs by spannering for Ajo Motorsport, being a Crew Chief and eventually gaining enough grounding to replace Aki when his dad assumed responsibility of the MotoGP project at the end of 2024. “It was a topic that has floated around for the last few years because it was not the first time he was asked to take the position,” Niklas says of the background to the operational shift that saw him slip into Aki’s well-worn Moto3/Moto2/development shoes. “A few years ago we felt that because of my age and experience that I wasn’t ready for this, and now when the option came again he felt he could not say ‘no’. I’m still only 30 but I have been travelling and inside the paddock on-and-off since 2002. So, we felt the position and the timing was right. We didn’t have much time to prepare for 2025 but perhaps that was a good thing!”

The rider with the riders

Niklas’ youth and relatability and his own experiences in Moto3 brings a strong string to his bow. He connects more in a ‘brotherly’ way to teenagers like Jose Antonio Rueda, Alvaro Carpe and Collin Veijer and more mature but still fledgling racers such as Deniz Öncü. There is a common language. “It helps a lot that I’ve been a rider before,” he admits. “To work with the riders and the bikes in Moto2, and then in Moto3 on a technical perspective I have close experience with the current machines we have. I think all of this helps to find my way to do things inside the team.”

Niklas already has a balanced perspective on what he achieved as a racer and how he dealt with Grand Prix, despite hindsight being quite fresh. There is no ‘rose tinted’ perspective, and if he can impart some of those lessons then it’s another advantage. “In general, I was not ready for the pressure of the world championship and everything around; it’s something I realized when I stopped. It was hard…I was looking around and asking ‘what is my target? What is my passion?’ and it wasn’t always clear.” 

Ajo is the team manager but he also has the rock foundations of Ajo Motorsport to stand on, as Aki occupies his energy and time with MotoGP. “There is a lot of other work behind, and it’s something we have tried to share a bit in the team with the likes of Tomas [Fonseca], who has been working closely with my father for years and then our coordinator Laura [Porro]. We have a good crew and a few key people that we share the responsibilities quite well. I feel I have a lot to give in this position.”

New learnings & the Ajo way

Niklas is now in another learning phase (and already advancing the team’s functionality, with the increased use of video analysis as an example) but wants to maintain the ethos and renowned Modus Operandi of Ajo Motorsport. “As team manager you have to be involved a little bit with everything,” he reveals. “You don’t have time to focus 100% on everything but you have to understand key points, and what is irrelevant or where we shouldn’t spend unnecessary time. You have to get the balance, and it’s difficult. That’s the main thing and what I am trying to understand more and more every day.”

The Ajos have dealt with determined young adults still growing, maturing and progressing in a dangerous sport. The world outside and the influences on teenagers are all around the MotoGP ‘bubble’. “We are with our phones every day and going through the news or this-and-that and it can easily distract you from your work or focus sometimes, especially if you see something negative from the outside. We have to work with our riders to guide them and try to close all that outside interference. For example, with Deniz this weekend [in Qatar] we have been talking very closely with him because the start to season was not very strong and there was a lot of expectations, especially from his side. Things have not been working as well as he expected and while he hasn’t lost the motivation we felt that he had lost his confidence a bit. When you see or listen to external things then it can be difficult to process what is true and what is not. It’s such an important job from our side to try and guide the riders in the correct way and keep them close. Allow them to perform. Make their working space relaxed and peaceful so they can do their job well.” 

The best and the missed opportunities

Ajo Motorsport’s rollcall of talent and milestones is the envy of most other teams in the world championship paddock. We had to press Niklas for a standout, and then perhaps one athlete where the ‘click’ didn’t quite happen.

“It is very difficult to choose someone specific,” he exhales, “but I would say that with Marc [Marquez, 2010] it was very clear. Obviously, we all know he has been someone very special and has been the face of the sport for many years. I actually followed him closely from the beginning, in the Spanish 125 championship in ’06 when he was there. He was still very small at that time. He was tiny, and with a lot of extra weight on the bike. I remember in 2006; I think he crashed in almost every race except one, which he won. There was already something there. You could see the fire inside that guy. I also remember his first year in Grand Prix: he crashed pretty much every weekend! My father obviously saw the talent in him and he had a couple of race wins before he came to the team. Then, Pedro [Acosta] later was something similar that we followed closely in the FIM CEV Moto3 [later FIM Junior GP].” 

A racer’s mind

“It's a complex thing,” Niklas smiles again. “The sport is so professional now, even compared to ten-fifteen years ago. Everyone prepares very well and even if we think of a great rider like Jack Miller then he was a bit of a cowboy, a bit loose when he first arrived on the track and in his personal life yet he was still able to win a lot of races and fight for the championship in Moto3. I feel this is not possible anymore and it doesn’t matter the amount of talent because everyone is working very professionally from when they are kids; the way they approach, they train, they eat. The families and teams invest a lot earlier in the training, mental side and technical side. It’s complicated, and it can be tricky to say what makes a good rider. It is just the combination of all different things. We couldn’t find that with Jaume.”

31 in July, Niklas, theoretically, could still zip up the leathers if Red Bull KTM Ajo needed a replacement racer. This suggestion breaks out the biggest smile and inhalation. “I still have the competitive side,” he admits. “[but] through this position and life, we can still ‘live’ this competitiveness. For me working with riders and looking at their videos allows me to go into the same mode as when I was riding. It’s something that is still there…”