‘A stormy week’: Pit Beirer confirms surprise KTM departure of Fabiano Sterlacchini

Fabiano Sterlacchini will leave his senior KTM role as Vice President of Technology for Road Racing after failing to agree on terms for a new contract.

Sterlacchini spent 17 years at Ducati, rising to the role of MotoGP technical coordinator. He then took a brief break from the sport, before resurfacing in ‘orange’ in June 2021.

Sterlacchini’s official title saw him responsible for KTM’s overall road racing activities alongside fellow Vice President Jens Hainbach.

The only people above them in the KTM racing hierarchy were company CEO Stefan Pierer, CMO Hubert Trunkenpolz and Motorsports Director Pit Beirer.

“It was a stormy week for us,” Beirer (pictured) said during opening practice at the Sachsenring, when quizzed on rumours of Sterlacchini’s exit by Simon Crafar.

“Fabiano was at the end of his contract. In the last week, we had some discussions. We tried to renew. We were working on a new three-year contract with him.

“But at the end of the day, we just couldn’t agree to some things. 

"For him the distance from his home was one part. But I don’t want to use this as our main excuse. We just couldn’t agree on some things on how to continue. That’s why we mutually agreed to split up.”

Beirer insisted that Sterlacchini was leaving on good terms and will remain ‘a friend’.

“He has created some areas in our project we didn’t even cover and he’s built them up. We took a different direction. I feel our project is on a much more stable base [thanks to his input]. We have more great people and we’ve found them together over the past few years," Beirer said.

“I’m happy with what he did. We don’t want to go into why we won’t go on together, but there was no broken contract. He was at the end of his contract and we couldn’t find an agreement for his future. Also, the distance to his home didn’t help.

“All in all, he’s leaving KTM as a friend.”

Although KTM finished second to Ducati in last year’s MotoGP constructors’ table, and Brad Binder took a KTM best of fourth in the riders’ standings, the RC16 has not won a grand prix since former rider Miguel Oliveira at Buriram in 2022.

It remains to be seen if Sterlacchini will join a rival MotoGP team. As well as Ducati and Aprilia, Yamaha also has an Italian base. 

Sterlacchini was the most senior of several key Ducati-to-KTM signings in recent years, which also included Red Bull KTM Team Manager Francesco Guidotti, Track Performance Manager Alberto Giribuola, plus Jack Miller and crew chief Cristhian Pupulin.