Alpine Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly has been named as one of the investors into the new-look MotoGP team Tech3.
Gasly first visited the MotoGP paddock in 2019, during the Thai Grand Prix, and gets on with one of the series' biggest stars, his compatriot Fabio Quartararo.
Tech3 has described Gasly as "the first active F1 driver to invest in a MotoGP team", a notable milestone given the persistent rumblings that the likes of Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen could be tempted into premier-class team ownership.
"I have a strong conviction in the strength of the Tech3 brand and the long-term growth of the MotoGP sport," said Gasly. "Tech3 has significant untapped potential, and I look forward to contributing to further elevating the team’s profile."
Gasly's sports investment portfolio already includes a part-ownership in a more local venture, the third-division French football outfit FC Versailles.
The news of his investment into Tech3 comes as the long-time MotoGP outfit unveils its full ownership structure following last year's takeover headlined by motorsport professionals Guenther Steiner and Richard Coleman and IKON Capital.
The group of investors now also includes Bolt Ventures (headed up by David Blitzer, currently best known in the sports landscape for being a managing partner at the Philadelphia 76ers basketball franchise and the New Jersey Devils in hockey) and Main Street Advisors (founded by Paul Wachter, who is a partner at Fenway Sports Group that owns multiple sports franchises including football club Liverpool and baseball's Boston Red Sox).
Tech3 founder Herve Poncharal had handed over the reins to new ownership at the turn of the year.
What's next for Tech3?
A long-standing MotoGP satellite team of much repute since joining the grand prix paddock at the turn of the century, Tech3 - which also has a Moto3 team - partnered Yamaha for over a decade before swapping over to KTM bikes as it sought a closer collaboration with its manufacturer partner.
In recent years that partnership has taken the form of Tech3 effectively being treated as a second factory team by KTM, with the same title partner in Red Bull, an effectively-indistinguishable livery, and two proven riders on factory contracts in Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini.
However, while it remains in a transition period from the Poncharal era to the new Steiner/Coleman-led operation, Tech3 will already have a massive decision to make in the early months of 2026.
"It's true that it's been a strange winter. I've been working with Herve since 2003, so it's a long work together," team principal Nicolas Goyon said.
"This winter has been kind of strange - because the official change of management has been made on December 31, so the whole December, Herve was still leading the company - but obviously he couldn't take any decisions. So on his side it was clearly, 'OK, I'm not the boss anymore'.
"And on the [other] side, they didn't really start, the only started on January 1. So, this winter - we managed on our own but we know how to manage it. The job was, in one way, quite easy: we kept the same sponsor, the same brand, the same riders, so everything was kind of settled.
"So in the end the transition was quite smooth, even if in December we were, let's say, on our own."
The aforementioned massive decision is whether the team will seek a new manufacturer partner or continue to work with KTM, whose programme is recovering after the financial crisis the company had survived last year.
Any idea then of KTM continuing in MotoGP into the new 850cc regulations in 2027, much less retaining a satellite team at the same level of support, felt fanciful a year ago - but under the new Bajaj Auto ownership the MotoGP programme appears safe as it stands.
There are thought to be no formal commitments between MotoGP (which itself is in an ownership transition phase following F1 owner Liberty Media's takeover) and any of the manufacturers, but KTM is already track-testing its 850cc prototype and its motorsport boss Pit Beirer made it clear during KTM's 2026 launch that he had the green light to press on with the project, with no sale of the team on the cards.
"As we know, our contract with KTM ends at the end of the year. Our main option is to stay with KTM," Goyon said.
That matter needs to be resolved before there's any real conversation about riders for 2027. Whatever happens, though, it looks increasingly likely that Tech3 couldn't continue with either Vinales - who is widely seen as KTM's priority replacement for Pedro Acosta in the main factory team - or Enea Bastianini - who hasn't settled in so well at KTM.
But there are enough credible options out of contract or enticing names from Moto2 that Tech3 should still have every chance of ending up with a good roster.
KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer said of continuing with Tech3: "Absolutely, that's priority number one. At the moment, that's the situation that not one manufacturer has the contract with [MotoGP promoter] Dorna for the future contract period, so that's also of course why nobody is doing the deal with a satellite team.
"But the motivation...I spoke to Guenther Steiner last week, he was in Austria, he wants to stay with us, we want them to stay with us, we're working on that.
"But of course at the end of the day it's a free market, when contracts are up it's normal that everybody is talking to everybody. I also understood from Dorna that it's their highest interest that not one manufacturer will now get more teams, and then one will be ending up with only one team. For the championship, I think it would be the best if everything just stays stable as it is today.
"I can tell you Tech3 is our wished partner going into the future, and I got the same feeling from Guenther, and that's what we're working on in the next weeks.
"And yes, we want to have a satellite team, 100%. That's part of a strong and healthy MotoGP project. I feel you need four bikes, that's the perfect number."
