3 reasons to get excited about Red Bull KTM & MotoGP™ in 2026

Here are three reasons to expect plenty of juice from the MotoGP ‘orange squad’. 

1. Each rider has an acute personal target

To reach the pinnacle of any sport requires a freakish level of commitment and sacrifice. Red Bull KTM’s roster of Pedro Acosta, Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Maverick Viñales have all won world championships upon the Grand Prix ladder and are driven by a level of motivation that can be hard to comprehend. Ambition to succeed should not be underestimated but the difference for 2026 is the small individual narratives for each rider and the extra point to ‘prove’.

Acosta, still just 21, enters his third season and with championship results of 6th and 4th to his name. Crucially for Pedro, he is one of only 3 riders from the 22 on the grid (not counting the two rookies for 2026) who still hasn’t seen a checkered flag waved in his honor. His 41 MotoGP starts boast an impressive 10 podium finishes with the RC16 (and 11 times in the top three for Sprints as well) but P1 has eluded the Spaniard. He was only half a second away in Portugal last year. Therefore, expect Pedro to be trying extra hard to scrape those tenths and add his name to the rollcall of Binder and Miguel Oliveira as KTM victors.

As for Brad -the longest serving KTM racer with six MotoGP seasons on his CV and over a decade as a Red Bull KTM athlete- 2026 is about recovery. The South African is fueled to remind MotoGP followers of his capabilities, and to soar back to the top six of the championship: a status he held for four seasons in a row from 2021 (P6, P6, P4 and P5). 

Enea will be on a similar trajectory. The Italian has had a year of acclimatization to the RC16 (which is only the second bike he has raced in MotoGP) and his podium appearance in Barcelona last year showed that he is not far away from the kind of form that earned at least one Grand Prix win in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Look for #23 to be rallying harder in qualification for better grid real estate.

Maverick’s journey is just as much about personal valediction as results. The experienced Spaniard drove KTM’s project forwards at the beginning of 2025 but his crash in the wet during the German Grand Prix for round eleven effectively ended his season as a podium force. The operation and subsequent recovery period for his left shoulder dictated much of his preparation work for the end of 2025 and the off-season. The 31-year-old has taken more steps to put himself into the best possible shape for 2026 and there are fewer fitter riders in Grand Prix than the Catalan.

2. Some changes stay the same

MotoGP will transform sections of the rulebook for 2027 which means the bikes will look different but there are also aspects of the pitlane which could also morph. 2026 will be the most active ‘silly season’ in years for the sport in terms of incoming and outgoing names and faces. So, all aspects of performance come more sharply into view. 

KTM are steadfast in their belief that MotoGP is one of the best global promotional platforms for the company’s brand values and its technology. Another unflinching component is the presence of key partners, like Red Bull, as well as conviction in systems like the KTM GP Academy, that nurtures and develops young racing talent from pools like the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and the Moto3™ and Moto2™ categories.

Changes are happening though, and there will be adjustments across various tiers of the racing structure, from board level to team operations to pitbox personnel and riders. In 2026 Red Bull KTM Tech3 come under new management and former F1 guru Günter Steiner as Team Principal, heading a group of investors. In Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini’s garages will be new Crew Chief alliances. 

’26 is the final gasp of the current Grand Prix era but it is also a shiny start for other strands. Who will have the late ‘honeymoon’ period?

3. The last discoveries of the technical twilight

Stating the obvious: 2026 is not 2025. KTM Motorsport could launch into the end of last year with more certainty and more resources. The goal? To squeeze the final solutions and combinations with the RC16 to maximize the current crop of Michelin tires for 2026. Seb Risse, Aki Ajo, the MotoGP test team and the entire technical crew had the objective of widening the optimum performance window of the bike for the four riders. That means alterations to harness all the grip of the French rubber, to see how more aerodynamic alterations can assist stability and turning, and how specific components can also be refined. The list of ideas and parts to assess meant a very busy first three-day test in Malaysia for the two teams.

“I think chassis-side is quite sorted,” Pedro said early into work duties at the Sepang International Circuit. “We are trying that the bike turns a bit more. It looks promising to be honest. We know that we are making a good job.” The Red Bull Tech3 boys were also animated over the increased proactivity KTM brought to the first slice of MotoGP this year. “I can be satisfied compared to the test of 2025: it’s different, and I can be happy of the factory because they worked very well in the winter,” explained ‘Bestia’. 

“The feeling of the bike is good,” said Maverick. “I tried aero, which we know already from Valencia [the 2025 test] is a step forward. Every little thing we tried is a step forward on where we were weak last year. I think the guys did a really good job.”

“I slowly put together all the parts that I tried at the end…and I felt quite a lot better. More comfortable and the times were coming easier,” Brad nodded.

If the foundations can be laid, then the last howl from the current RC16 engine could be loud and emphatic. Ready to Race? Let’s see.