Ajo Motorsport
The Ajo Motorsport team is a motorcycle racing team from Finland . It starts in the motorcycle world championship in the classes Moto2 , Moto3 and MotoE . Team boss is the Finn Aki Ajo.
history
The story as a team began in the 125cc class of the 2001 season ; initially as a wildcard team with Mika Kallio and up to and including 2005 with a Honda chassis. In 2002 they drove the entire season. The season was quite successful, Kallio achieved several top 10 placements and took eleventh place in the World Cup.
In 2003 , the Japanese Masao Azuma was used as a second driver alongside the Finns. In the middle of the season, however, Kallio left the team and switched to Red Bull KTM . The 30-year-old Italian Andrea Ballerini took his place . And this achieved a sensation when he won the Italian Grand Prix . With Azuma also finishing second, it became a one-two for the team.
In 2004, however, the team had to be replaced after Azuma had retired and Ballerini had switched to Sterilgarda Racing . Now the team had problems building on the performance of the last two years. The new team leader was the Czech Lukáš Pešek , who won the World Cup 21 with 20 points. has been. During the season, the Dane Robin Harms , the Finn Mikko Kyyhkynen and the Italian Max Sabbatani sat alternately on the second bike . Harms finished 30th with five points, the other riders remained points.
In 2005 Ajo Motorsport experienced another upward trend with Alexis Masbou and Tomoyoshi Koyama as new drivers. Koyama even finished two races on the podium and finished eighth in the World Championship, which was the best overall placement by an Ajo driver to date.
In 2006 the same drivers competed, but switched to the new Malaguti chassis. Expectations were high, but the season was unfortunate as Koyama and Masbou could only take part in 13 and eight of the 16 races, respectively, due to injuries. While the Japanese could score eleven times and with 49 points World Cup 15. was, the French remained without points. The four substitute drivers (including the German Georg Fröhlich ) did not collect any points either. After only one year, Ajo separated from Malaguti and switched to Derbi .
Since Koyama had already signed with Red Bull KTM for 2007 and Masbou had split up due to poor performance, both positions had to be filled again. The drivers were now the Austrian Michael Ranseder and the Romanian Robert Mureșan . While Mureșan did not score any points, Ranseder was twelfth in the World Cup with 73 points.
Despite Ranseder's constant performance, Ajo reformatted again for 2008 , with Dominique Aegerter and Mike Di Meglio as drivers. This season also marked the final breakthrough for the Finnish team. Di Meglio clinched his second victory at the Italian Grand Prix as well as the first since 2003. Three more victories followed at the Grand Prix of Catalonia , Germany and Australia as well as the first two pole positions . With the latter victory, the Frenchman also secured the drivers' title with two races to go. Aegerter finished the season with three eighth places as the best results in 16th.
In 2009 Aki Ajo entered into a one-year contract with Interwetten as a sponsor. As a result, the team was called Ajo Interwetten for a year . Since Di Meglio had moved up to the 250 cc class, Sandro Cortese was signed as the second driver alongside Aegerter. The Swabian took three podium places this season and was sixth in the World Cup, Aegerter 13th.
In 2010 , after Aegerter had moved up to the middle class - now called Moto2 - a new era began for the team that continues to this day. After KTM dropped out of the motorcycle world championship at the end of 2009, Ajo entered into a joint venture with the Red Bull KTM team, which from now on was called Red Bull Ajo Motorsport . Derbi machines continued to be used, but Red Bull became the new main sponsor and is still today. Cortese stayed with the team, while Aegerter's second place was taken by Marc Márquez , who had been with Red Bull KTM for the past two years. In addition, Adrián Martín was used as the third driver, who, however, competed on an Aprilia . Márquez was world champion with ten wins, Cortese seventh with two podiums and Martín WM-15.
In the 2011 season the team had to be revised rather after Márquez had risen in the Moto2 World Championship and Cortese and Martin to Intact Racing and the Aspar team of Jorge Martínez changed. Now Ajo competed on five machines in two teams. On the one hand, Red Bull Ajo Motorsport continues, now on Aprilia and with drivers Danny Kent and Jonas Folger . The second team was Avant AirAsia Ajo, with the Malaysian airline AirAsia as sponsor. That team used Derbi and competed with Johann Zarco , Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Efrén Vázquez . Both Folger and Zarco were able to win a race each, and Zarco's victory was the only non-Aprilia victory in that season. With ten further podium finishes (six second and four third places) he was also runner-up. Folger was ranked sixth, Vázquez with two third places seventh, Kent eleventh and Khairuddin 18th.
In 2012 the 125 cc class became the Moto3 class. Once again, there were two teams who used both KTM machines after KTM's return to the World Championship, which is still the case today. Air-AirAsia-SIC only used one driver with Khairuddin, while Red Bull Ajo now used three motorcycles. Kent stayed, the other two bikes were occupied by Sandro Cortese and Arthur Sissis . This season was also a success, with all drivers taking the podium, Cortese winning five and Kent two races. The Swabian was the first Moto3 world champion in history, Kent was fourth, Khairuddin seventh and Sissis twelfth.
For the 2013 season , Ajo decided after Cortese and Kent's Moto2 promotion to use only one team, but still with three drivers. Sisis and Khairuddin both stayed with Red Bull KTM Ajo, the third driver was Luis Salom . The Spaniard immediately established himself as a team leader; he finished third with seven wins.
In 2014 the team was enlarged again; After Salom's promotion to the Moto2 category, Red Bull KTM Ajo only competed with two drivers ( Jack Miller and Karel Hanika ), but SIC-AJO returned as a team with Hafiq Azmi as the driver. In addition, a third team was opened with Husqvarna ; The rider was Moto2 returnees Danny Kent and Aki Ajo's son Niklas Ajo . Miller perfectly built on Cortese and Salom's performances of the last two seasons. The Australian won six races and was runner-up in the world championship. Kent finished eighth in the World Championship with two podium places.
In the 2015 season , only the Red Bull KTM Ajo team was used after both SIC (as SIC Petronas Sprinta Racing Team ) and Husqvarna (as works team ) split off. Hanika stayed on as a driver, but Miller was promoted to the MotoGP class. Three machines were used, with Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira as drivers . In addition, they now competed in the Moto2 class on a Kalex with Johann Zarco as the driver. The decision was a complete success; Zarco won the world title in the Moto2 class with eight victories, and he also finished in the top 8 in every race. In the Moto3 category, Oliveira rode on the same level as Cortese, Salom and Miller over the last few years; he was runner-up with six wins, Binder sixth with four podiums.
In 2016 , after Oliveira was promoted to Stefan Kiefer's Leopard Honda Racing Team in the Moto2 class , Ajo entered the smallest class with only two motorcycles for the first time since 2009. Binder stayed with the team, the second driver was last year's Red Bull Rookies Cup winner Bo Bendsneyder instead of Karel Hanika . In the Moto2 class, Zarco continued to compete. The season was even more successful than the last; both Zarco and Binder became world champions in their class.
Another new chapter began in 2017 after KTM was promoted to the premier class; because at the same time the Austrians began their Moto2 commitment, with which Ajo now also competed in the Moto2 category with KTM instead of Kalex. Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were the drivers, while the Italian veteran Niccolò Antonelli competed alongside Bendsneyder in the Moto3 class . Oliveira was able to win the last three races and was third in the World Championship, and Binder also achieved three podium places. The Moto3 season, on the other hand, was much less successful after winning at least six races per season over the past five years. In general, the KTM was inferior to the Honda in terms of top speed this year. The only highlight of the season was Antonelli's second place at the Japanese Grand Prix .
In 2018, both Binder and Oliveira stayed in the team. In the Moto3 class, for the first time since 2002, one only competed with a motorcycle, namely with Binder's younger brother Darryn Binder . Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were able to win three races each this season and the Portuguese was runner-up and the South African came third. As a result, the team was even able to win the team championship that was newly introduced in both the Moto2 and Moto3 classes. In the Moto3 category, Darryn Binder finished third at the Japanese Grand Prix once on the podium and finished 17th in the World Championship, while they finished twelfth in the Team World Championship. Due to an injury he had to skip the German Grand Prix and was replaced by Raúl Fernández , who finished seventh. In addition, Red Bull rookies overall winner Can Öncü entered the season finale, the Valencia Grand Prix , with a wild card and was able to win the race by surprise.
In 2019 Öncü became a new Moto3 regular driver. Since he was not yet 16 years old at the start of the season, he should not have started yet, but the FIM made an exception due to his Red Bull Rookies Cup title . In the Moto2 class, after Oliveira was promoted to the MotoGP category, the reigning Moto3 world champion Jorge Martín was signed as a teammate by Binder. However, the season was very problematic, so that KTM announced the exit from the Moto2 class at the end of the season as part of the Austrian Grand Prix in order to focus more on the MotoGP class. Thereupon Binder started a race to catch up and won five of the last nine races, whereupon the South African was runner-up with only three points behind Marc-VDS- Kalex driver Álex Márquez , while Martín finished eleventh with a second and a third place. The Moto3 season was disappointing. Can Öncü was only able to score eight points, which is the first time the team has been on the podium in the smallest class since 2007. Can Öncü's twin brother Deniz also competed as a wildcard and substitute driver in five races. In the team world championship they finished 16th and last in the Moto3 and third in the Moto2 class. The team also competed in the new MotoE World Cup with the Finn Niki Tuuli . Tuuli won the first race in the new series, but ended the season only 15th after an injury.
In the 2020 season , Ajo will again be competing in the Moto3 class with two drivers. The new drivers are the Spaniard Raúl Fernández and the Japanese Kaito Toba . In the Moto2 category, the old paintwork is retained, but after KTM's withdrawal from Moto2, it is now back with a Kalex chassis. Jorge Martín remains in the team, the second rider after Binder's MotoGP promotion was Tetsuta Nagashima , which means that Ajo competes with a Japanese and a Spaniard in both classes. Both Nagashima and Martín won one of the first five races and are fourth and third after five races. In the Moto3 class, Fernández is currently seventh, Toba is 20th.
World Champion
-
2008 - Mike Di Meglio , 125 cc world champion on Derbi
-
2010 - Marc Márquez , 125 cc world champion on Derbi
-
2012 - Sandro Cortese , Moto3 world champion on KTM
-
2015 - Johann Zarco , Moto2 world champion on Kalex
-
2016 - Johann Zarco, Moto2 world champion on Kalex
-
2016 - Brad Binder , Moto3 world champion on KTM
Team World Cup results (since 2018)
Moto2
- 2018 - World Champion (as a joint venture with Red Bull KTM )
- 2019 - third (as a joint venture with Red Bull KTM )
Moto3
- 2018 - twelfth (as a joint venture with Red Bull KTM )
- 2019 - 16. (as a joint venture with Red Bull KTM )
Grand Prix victories
(Status: GP of Austria 2020)
| season | class | run |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 125 cc |
|
| 2008 | 125 cc |
|
| 2010 | 125 cc |
      
|
| 2011 | 125 cc |
|
| 2012 | Moto3 |
.svg){kind=small}
|
| 2013 | Moto3 |
 
|
| 2014 | Moto3 |
|
| 2015 | Moto2 |
|
| Moto3 |
|
|
| 2016 | Moto2 |
|
| Moto3 |
|
|
| 2017 | Moto2 |
|
| 2018 | Moto2 |
|
| Moto3 |
|
|
| 2019 | Moto2 |
|
| MotoE |
|
|
| 2020 | Moto2 |
|
Web links
- Official website (English)