HISTORY

The French-based Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 is one of the most experienced teams competing in the MotoGP™ world championship, with its proud history dating as far back as 1989.

Located in Provence in southern France, the team was formed by Hervé Poncharal and colleagues who began their Grand Prix adventure by contesting in the 250cc World Championship with Dominique Sarron. In 1993, Tech3 ran the American rider John Kocinski in the 250cc series, before signing emerging French talent Olivier Jacque, two years later.

It was to be a partnership that elevated Tech3 and Jacque’s profile to a new level. The French rider won a dramatic 250cc title in the season finale against teammate Shinya Nakano at Phillip Island in 2000 – with the Tech3 Team thrilling fans worldwide with one of the closest finishes to the title, ever to occur in history.

A year later in 2001, Tech3 further enhanced its growing reputation by joining the MotoGP™ class, starting a long and successful collaboration with Yamaha in the premier series.

The introduction of the Moto2™ class in 2010, saw the 250cc two-stroke class replaced by 600cc four-stroke class, which the Tech3 Racing Team entered and wrote a new chapter in the history pages.

The 750cc motorbikes use a controlled Triumph engine since 2019 and Dunlop provides the tyres which are set for all entrants. The chassis can be modified as much as possible in accordance with the FIM regulations.

Since the introduction of the Moto2™ class in 2010, the Tech3 Racing Team had exclusively designed, manufactured and modified its own chassis, which was named the ‘Mistral 610’. This feat was unprecedented with the French squad the only team in the MotoGP™ paddock who designed their own chassis in the intermediate class, in conjunction with running the highly successful Tech3 MotoGP™ Team.

Seven seasons since the team’s entry in the ultra-competitive class has seen credible riders aboard the Mistral 610. In 2010, Yuki Takahashi and Raffaele De Rosa campaigned the inaugural year of the Moto2™ class, with Takahashi taking a superbly executed win at Catalunya as well as a 2nd place finish at Brno and three front row starts.

2011 saw Bradley Smith join the Tech3 Racing Moto2™ Team, along with French rider Mike Di Meglio as well as young Belgian Xavier Simeon who competed for the Tech3 B Team. Smith brought the team continued success with three podiums in his rookie season, which included the personal highlight of finishing his home Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2nd after qualifying in 28th on the grid.

The following season saw Bradley Smith and Xavier Simeon continue with the Tech 3 Racing Team and in 2013 the young British talent of Danny Kent and French rider Louis Rossi, both Moto3™ front runners, linked up with the French team for their rookie Moto2™ seasons.

In 2014, the Tech3™ Racing Team joined forces with Marcel Schrötter and Ricky Cardus, who replaced the injured Alex Mariñelarena. The team continued their hard work with the exclusively designed and built Mistral 610 which saw Schrötter clinch a strong result of 10th in the championship standings, whilst Ricky Cardus produced a best finish of 7th in Catalunya and also memorably ran at the top end of the field in Misano.

The team began 2015 with Schrötter and Cardus, with Louis Rossi using the Mistral 610 chassis for the Tasca Racing Scuderia Team. Yet Tech3 and Cardus came to a decision halfway through the season that saw the Spanish rider depart and Xavi Vierge came in as his replacement. Schrötter battled through the year with a best finish of 9th, whilst Vierge used the opportunity to gather as much information as possible. Despite the fact that he had never visited most of the tracks in the second half of the season, he just missed out on several point-scoring finishes, which marked his potential.

In 2016, Vierge contested his first full season in the intermediate class and was joined by Isaac Viñales, who stepped up from Moto3™ and both riders rode the Mistral 610 with KYB suspension. Tech3, KYB and Vierge worked relentlessly and the Spanish rider went on to produce a series of highly impressive performances as he progressed throughout the year before superbly clinching the Rookie of the Year honours at the final round showdown.

Vierge remained with the Tech3 Racing Team for the 2017 season and was joined by the exciting Australian talent of Remy Gardner. After the positive end to the 2016 season, Vierge had his sights set on challenging for results inside the top ten, which he narrowly missed in 11th overall. Over the course of the season, the fast Spaniard set some truly impressive highlights in achieving a podium finish at the Japanese GP, plus fighting consistently with the top.

Meanwhile Gardner experienced a learning season abroad the Mistral 610, gradually improving his results. The Czech GP saw the talented Australian finish in ninth, his best result to date. Following a contract extension, Remy aimed to further progress with his Tech3 Racing Team in 2018. He was partnered by Dutch young gun Bo Bendsneyder, who was set to debut in the intermediate category after showing some impressive potential in Moto3™ earlier.

Thereby, the young Australian showed huge potential at the beginning of the season, clinching a personal Moto2™ best of sixth in Argentina, but was forced to sit out some rounds after breaking his legs in a training accident. Following an impressive comeback, Remy Gardner visited the parc ferme for the first time in rainy Silverstone, securing the second starting position for a race that was unfortunately cancelled due to the too wet conditions. He kept improving and ended his season and his partnership with Tech3 with a personal best of fifth in Valencia, while Moto2 rookie Bo Bendsneyder adapted gradually to the new class and the Mistral 610, scoring his first points at the new Thai Grand Prix, before he got injured and unluckily had to call the season an early end.

With the introduction of the newly developed Triumph engines, the Tech3 squad completely changed to KTM in 2019, running the MotoGP™ and the Moto2™ teams unitary. With Marco Bezzecchi and Philipp Öttl, the French staff also counted on a brand-new riders’ line-up with two talents graduating from Moto3™. With some top 10 results in the Netherlands and Thailand for Bezzecchi and some strong showings outside of that, the duo finished the year in 23rd and 33rd of the overall standings.

With the end of the 2019 season, Tech3 stopped their Moto2™ involvement in order to start a completely new challenge in the Moto3™ category. The brand-new Red Bull KTM Tech3 team contested in the Moto3™ World Championship with KTM bikes and the youngsters Ayumu Sasaki plus Deniz Öncü. While Sasaki was arriving with some experience, he needed some time to adapt to his new machine, but made it to the podium at the Alcañiz Grand Prix with second, plus clinched a front row start at the finale round in Portugal. Yet, Öncü was a newcomer to the class in 2020, but improved with each race weekend. The Turkish youngster impressed with five top 10 finishes, bringing home is personal best with sixth at the penultimate round.

In 2021, both Sasaki and Öncü continued their adventure with Red Bull KTM Tech3. This time, both had good experience of the Moto3™ category and we saw more consistency throughout the year. Deniz finished seven times in the Top 10, including three podiums and became a regular contender to win races, while Ayumu found consistency with finishing eleven times out of sixteen races inside the Top 10, including a podium in Aragon alongside his Turkish teammate. They respectively finished 11th and 9th in the 2021 Moto3™ World Championship.

Turkish rider Deniz Öncü rode for a third season in a row in 2022 with the French squad, and powered himself amongst race winners contenders all season long. With another three podiums added to his collection and in addition to nine Top 5 results, he closed his last season with Red Bull KTM Tech3 fifth in the championship with 200 points. Spaniard Adrian Fernandez closed his second year in the Moto3™ World Championship in twentieth with a total of 51 points, a season highlighted by a P5 on homeland in Aragon.

In 2023, Red Bull KTM Tech3 welcomed on board two new riders. Coming from Red Bull KTM Ajo, Spaniard Daniel Holgado joined the squad for his second season in the lightweight class. Alongside him, Italian Filippo Farioli will made his debuts in the Moto3™ World Championship following a breakout year in both the Rookies Cup and the FIM Junior GP™ World Championship. Daniel Holgado impressed as he settled as one of the contenders of the crown, winning a total of three races, in addition to another four podiums and one pole position. He eventually closed the season with 220 points and a fifth place in the standing as he came a bit short towards the end of the season. Filippo Farioli took a bit of time to adapt to the lightweight class, and that was towards the end of 2023 that he managed to score almost all his points, to end the season 24th in the standings, with nineteen points.

2024 sees the French team become the new ambassador of Spanish brand GASGAS in the lightweight class, in the continuity of Tech3’s MotoGP™ team. The Moto3™ squad is set to show its new colours in  red and become Red Bull GASGAS Tech3. Daniel Holgado will continue with the team for the second season in a row as he aims to fly even higher than in 2023, while Australian Jacob Roulstone will join forces in his rookie season in the class.