KTM has yet another MotoGP mega-prospect – but can it make room?

The pulleys of KTM’s MotoGP talent conveyor belt have continued their ceaseless rotation this season, with Remy Gardner following in Iker Lecuona’s footsteps through his own bitter KTM exit being parlayed into a World Superbike seat, while Raul Fernandez is walking away of his own accord.

For most manufacturers, cutting ties with two riders who finished 1-2 in the main MotoGP feeder series just a year prior would be a fairly seismic event. For KTM, it only means the conveyor belt gets to keep moving.

Its budding superstar Pedro Acosta is still the hottest property below MotoGP, asserting his status with an injury-affected Moto2 campaign that has not been as explosive as his rookie season Moto3 title win but has still been plenty good enough.

And now another rider in the KTM family has had the audacity to not only succeed Acosta as the Moto3 champion but do it in an almost as impressive fashion.

Representing sister brand Gas Gas on a KTM RC250GP run by the Aspar team, 18-year-old Izan Guevara had his first chance at wrapping up the Moto3 crown at Phillip Island last weekend with two races to spare. He was called up to the Thursday pre-event press conference, where Marc Marquez spoke of the pep talk he gave Guevara, having perceived him as being too “nervous” in the way he rode to fifth in the previous race in Buriram.

“He just needs to follow his instinct. By his instinct, he’s fast,” said Marquez.

“He’ll have many chances to do it – and just enjoy this moment, because he’s a rider that will be…

“I don’t want to say the name, but [he’s] a good rider in Moto3, but will also be a good rider in the future in higher categories.”

Not to be putting words into Marquez’s mouth, but it’s likely that what he was trying hard not to say was ‘this kid is heading to MotoGP’.

And, in any case, that pep talk definitely didn’t hurt – at Phillip Island Guevara looked free and absolutely magnificent, taking on three rivals in a mesmerising 20-lap lead-group tango before seizing on a last-lap chance to wave goodbye to the trio and escape with the win, ensuring his title with two races to spare.

It was his third title in four years, too. Guevara had earlier won two Portugal/Spain-based series – the European Talent Cup in 2019 and CEV Moto3 in 2020, beating Acosta among others in the latter (although Acosta did vastly outperform him in the more international Red Bull Rookies Cup).

But how can a second-year Moto3 title be anywhere near as impressive as a first-year one? Well, it’s a matter of its nature, its context, its feel. Acosta’s triumph was built on electric moments that made his outrageous talent impossible to ignore, but he also had something of a mini-slump that threatened his crown and frankly wasn’t qualifying particularly well throughout.

He still scored more than double fellow rookie Guevara’s points in 2021, but 2022 pitted Guevara against more experienced versions of the rivals…