“It’s our North Star” - 3 reasons why five more years of MotoGP is important to KTM

"The offroad segment has been steady for many years, and we come from offroad; it is our original DNA so motocross, enduro, offroad and Dakar…but it has not been growing profoundly," Gottfried explains. "So, the street segment of the market has become a very important area for KTM. We make half of our revenue with street models. So, we want to show this expertise, and not through participating in smaller [national] championships but by being right at the top and showing that we not only can compete but try to be a benchmark for others in some aspects."

"It's about brand equity: whatever segment we are active in then we want to compete with the best in those sectors," he added, underlining KTM's objective for products that move the needle, rather than aiming for mere presence (whether a naked bike, sports bike, sports touring, supermoto, dualsport or more). KTM now also has a clear correlation with MotoGP in their portfolio.

"For street expertise [MotoGP] is really important," he adds. "We just launched our KTM 990 RC R and our new 990 RC R Cup. This model really derives from MotoGP, even though we don't have a V4 engine! We definitely want to extend our RC [supersport] line-up; the 990 was first and we'll have a 790 and a 490 like other brands with mid-and-lower-class presence and in a segment that is growing. We're really proud that the KTM 990 RC R won so many test reviews against other models. The pay-off with MotoGP is now clearer whereas before we didn't have a full-faired bike."