Tech3 boss Herve Poncharal ‘not kidding ourselves’ over Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales realisation

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KTM Factory Racing have put two new riders in the Tech3 line-up after signing Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales to works contracts to join Herve Poncharal’s outfit.

The 2025 campaign marks the seventh time in as many seasons that Tech3 have a new face in the garage since joining up with KTM in 2019. Never has Poncharal seen both of his pilots return for a second year on an RC16, with this term also the fourth time both riders are new.

KTM moved to award each of Bastianini and Vinales two-year factory contracts to join Tech3 for the 2025 MotoGP season ahead of their departures from Ducati and Aprilia respectively. Their arrivals at Tech3 also mark the first time that both riders have raced a KTM in MotoGP.

Herve Poncharal ‘not kidding ourselves’ over what Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini can do in the Thai Grand Prix

Bastianini last raced a KTM bike in the 2014 Moto3 season and has spent his entire premier class career to date on Ducati machinery. Similarly, Vinales last raced a KTM bike in the 2013 Moto3 season and has raced with Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia bikes since his MotoGP debut.

Poncharal accepts his new riders’ inexperience with a KTM RC16 will likely limit what either Bastianini or Vinales will achieve with Tech3 in the 2025 season-opening Thai Grand Prix on March 2. The Tech3 boss believes he would be kidding himself just to predict a top-10 finish.

READ MORE: Everything to know about KTM Tech3 including the MotoGP team’s riders

But with Bastianini boasting seven Grand Prix wins from 70 MotoGP races and Vinales a 10-time Grand Prix winner across 180 entries, Poncharal realises Tech3 have the strongest rider line-up in their history. Yet neither is as good as the rider Tech3 lost to KTM in Pedro Acosta.

He told GPOne: “With Enea and Maverick with have the best riding duo since we entered the premier class in 2001. But last year we had the best rider ever since we joined forces with KTM in 2019. I knew from day one what Pedro Acosta was made of, he is a diamond.

“Now, with our experienced riders Enea and Maverick, we have to improve step by step. But in MotoGP, you never know exactly what will happen.

“Maybe we can pull off a surprise right at the start of the season next week. But we are not kidding ourselves and are not automatically assuming that we can finish in the top 10 at the first Grand Prix.”

Enea Bastianini faces a tough Thai GP after struggling with tyre wear in the Buriram Test

Bastianini has often the king of tyre management since his MotoGP debut in the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix. The 27-year-old has also won at least one Grand Prix over each of the past three seasons – including four for Gresini on a year-old Ducati to come third in the 2022 standings.

Vinales arrives at Tech3 with a less impressive record in recent seasons. But the 30-year-old was the only non-Ducati bike to win a Grand Prix last term after handing Aprilia glory at the Grand Prix of the Americas. It marked the Spaniard’s first win since Qatar 2021 for Yamaha.

Yet Poncharal is right to play down expectations for what Tech3’s best rider line-up to date in MotoGP can achieve in the Thai Grand Prix. While Bastianini won the Sprint Race at Buriram from second on the grid in 2024, he struggled in the rain and found the gravel to come 14th.

Vinales came home in P7 with Aprilia in the 2024 Thai GP, as he did in 2022 before retiring in 2023. But the signs are not good for Poncharal’s new factory KTM contracted riders this year after Bastianini had dire tyre wear in the Buriram Test as he learns how to exploit the RC16.