MotoGP: GASGAS joins factory team in 2023 and signs Pol Espargaro
GASGAS is yet another brand vying for the MotoGP Championship in the premier class, with the introduction of the GASGAS Factory Racing Team from 2023.
The new team, which is also part of the KTM’s controlling group (Pierer Mobility Group), will use the same bike without any difference and has already hired a top rider, the Spaniard Pol Espargaro, who ends his contract with Honda at the end of this year.
Espargaro will therefore be returning to the team that is now known as the Tech3 Factory Racing Team, and will use the bike that he helped to develop and achieve some good results.
GASGAS is a motorcycle brand with Spanish origins, and already has teams in the Moto2 and Moto3 categories. Now, they take the next step, which is to compete in the MotoGP. For those who don’t know, the company was formed in the 1980s and made fame in Trials and Enduro championships, achieving success in motocross, supercross and rally in recent years.
Pit Beirer, GASGAS Motorsports Director: “GASGAS is a winning brand. It has reached an incredible level of performance immediately in disciplines like MXGP, Supercross, Enduro and Rally where we have taken Grands Prix, Main Events, world titles and overall winners’ trophies. It’s a relatively new brand for us and we have new goals. We hope the fans that follow ‘the red’ will enjoy the story. Thanks to our strong partner, the ASPAR team, in Moto3 and Moto2 we have been able to see the GASGAS bikes right at the front of those categories. It would be great to see the same thing eventually in the hardest class of them all. I want to thank Hervé and the Tech3 factory racing team for keeping an open mind and really supporting this change to become the GASGAS Factory Racing Team. We think it’s exciting and different.”
Hubert Trunkenpolz, Member of the Executive Board, CMO: “Taking the GASGAS name bigger and wider than its roots in Trial has been really successful in a number of ways. After seeing what we could achieve in Moto3 and Moto2 the next question was whether we could take GASGAS to MotoGP and we’re thrilled that we can make this step. It’s a new journey and I know the brand will stand out right away. Importantly, the team, the riders, the management will help GASGAS make a splash in the premier class. That’s what we’re hoping for!”
Herve Poncharal, GASGAS Team Manager: “Let me make a few confidences to you. Since we joined the Pierer Mobility Group, I can tell you that it has been my happiest professional years in my life. Because, when you work with Stefan, when you work with Hubert, and when you work with Pit, of course, the target and the main thing is competition, but I also love to spend evenings with these gentlemen to talk about business, to talk about strategy, to see how our motorcycle industry is evolving. I’m really, really happy to be part of a European manufacturer and the European manufacturers all together are moving on; we can see every single Sunday in the MotoGP™ podium that they are more and more.
“To be a full factory GASGAS team is a big source of pride. There is a lot I touch in the GASGASname, we know where they came from, I’m from the south or Europe, and I feel very honoured, very proud, and I feel there will be more emulation inside the Pierer Mobility Group in the MotoGP class, in between the orange and the red brand. For sure, as Hubert and Pit said, I would like to thank the Jorge Martin Aspar Team and his riders. First, to be here, they’ve been opening the road, they did a great job, they are still doing a great job, and we owe them a lot. We are together and I’m happy to be even closer to them because they deserve full respect. I just feel happy, I just love challenges – this is why I’m here – and racing is about challenges – industry, business challenges – and I’m very happy to be part of this new challenge.
“If you remember well, a few years ago, there was a young man, a Moto2™ World Champion, that joined the MotoGP™ class with Tech3. His name is Pol Espargaro. We had a great few years together when we started, we discovered the MotoGP™ class together, and I have always said that Pol is a real fighter, Pol was a key player in the Pierer Mobility KTM MotoGP™ programme, and I’m delighted to announce he is back in the family. We can’t wait to start working with him, and I think he will be a perfect ambassador for the GASGAS brand. So, this is like a fairytale; welcome back, Pol. This is also to Stefan, Hubert, and Pit to say more than me, but anyway, I’m over the moon and I think this GASGAS MotoGP™ project couldn’t start better than with Pol. So, this is fantastic news and I just can’t wait to be in November.”
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photos: MotoGP