KTM's MotoGP project has a problem it cannot fix on its own — and its rivals have just made sure of it.
Speaking at the Sachsenring, KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer confirmed what a season of unexplained failures had already suggested. "The situation is not easy, there is something wrong inside our engines," he said. "There is a problem, and we have to solve it; there are engines we cannot use also for safety reasons."
The most alarming episode came at the Catalan Grand Prix, where Pedro Acosta's RC16 shut down at high speed and triggered a collision with Alex Marquez — one of the heavier crashes of the season. A separate failure at Assen was traced to a sensor problem set off by kerb contact. To manage the risk, KTM has quietly detuned its engines, sacrificing performance to get its bikes to the finish.
That is where the rules bite. Under MotoGP's engine-freeze regulations, manufacturers outside the lowest concession tier must seal their engine specification before the first race of the year and cannot touch it again without the agreement of every rival on the grid. KTM asked for exactly that: permission to open its sealed units over the summer break and investigate the fault.
The request was refused. According to Autosport, only Aprilia backed KTM, while Ducati, Honda and Yamaha all blocked it. Beirer singled out the one manufacturer that offered help. "I want to thank Fabiano Sterlacchini and Massimo Rivola of Aprilia who are helping us," he said.
The refusal leaves KTM in an awkward position. "We know there's still this risk with some parts," Beirer admitted, before framing the shutdown as the priority for the weeks ahead. "We must use the summer break for this."
There is precedent for a reprieve. Yamaha was granted permission to modify frozen engines in 2020 after identifying a supplier valve-dimension defect — a safety-driven exception the rest of the grid waved through. KTM's rivals, with a title fight tightening and their own engine allocations to protect, have been far less accommodating this time.
The cost is being measured on track. Acosta, briefly a race-winning threat earlier in the year, has slipped to seventh in the championship, his campaign undermined less by pace than by whether his bike will go the distance. New 850cc engines arrive for 2027 and will reset the technical picture for everyone, but that is next year's story. For now KTM has to nurse a package it has admitted is unsafe to run flat-out, without the freedom to take it apart and understand why.
Beirer's candour at least draws a line under months of speculation. The reliability failures were not flukes or one-off electronics glitches; by the team's own account, there is something wrong deep inside the motor. Fixing it quietly, mid-season, is no longer an option the rest of the grid is willing to grant.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/ktm-admits-something-wrong-in-engines-as-rivals-block-fix). Visit for full coverage.*