Aki Ajo jumps into the deep end as a team manager in the MotoGP class of track motorcycling, writes Urheilu’s editor Jussi Jäkälä.
Jussi Jäkälä
Practically Aki Ajo56, has also been involved in KTM’s MotoGP project in the background for several years and communicated with the management on a weekly basis and on race weekends on a daily basis. As team manager, his role changes a bit, but the places and people are already familiar.
Ajo has long been known as a discoverer and developer of young talents. In recent years, however, the Ajo Motorsport team he led has been increasingly involved in the training of KTM drivers who have already moved to the royal category. Ajo already has the competence to handle drivers with star status as well as the operating methods of several different MotoGP class teams.
In the MotoGP class, there are five different motorcycle manufacturers participating as factory teams. During the last decade, Ajo has been able to follow the activities of three of them practically from the field. If Suzuki, who left the MotoGP stage two years ago, is also included in the calculations, the experience bank of the Finnish team manager includes the pit stops of no less than four different MotoGP teams.
Until a few years ago, it was common for him to change into a “neutral” shirt after his own team’s Moto3 and Moto2 races and watch the race of his protégés who rode in the MotoGP class from their pit areas.
Ajo has previously worked as a manager and for a Suzuki driver Maverick for Vinales that To Jack Millerwho started in the MotoGP class at Honda’s satellite team, but whose rider contract was made directly with the factory. As Miller’s manager, Ajo has since moved smoothly also in the pits of Ducati and KTM.
The essential thing is that he has not been there to show off, but as an expert whose opinions have been listened to carefully, even though he has not yet been a representative of the MotoGP team. It is one indication of street credibility, which is definitely needed in a new car.
Ajo is known as an honest and outspoken person, whose feedback may also make drivers basking in their confidence.
Complaining about the bike’s inability to compete quite often leads to an invitation to look in the mirror first. Ajo has seen numerous times in his career how success and wins quickly raise a driver’s self-confidence to the sky – or how one crash or adversity, for example in civilian life, can make a driver lose his temper and the result curve even into a downward spiral.
Driving is considered to be a skilled connoisseur of people, who is able, as he himself says, by “talking about life”, for example, to get a driver who is in trouble to start a new journey or, similarly, to return a hovering person to the ground. Through his own stable and driver development activities, he is already very familiar with the giants who expect strong results from him starting next season, i.e. Europe’s largest motorcycle manufacturer KTM and the energy drink giant Red Bull.
Based on the pit talks, the KTM team’s decisions have not always been marked by analyticalness or long-termism. For example, currently leading the MotoGP class World Series in the horns of Ducati Jorge Martin was part of KTM’s junior program and he also reached the world championship in the Moto3 class. However, KTM chased his MotoGP place for too long and Martin “sneaked” into the competitor’s camp.
Last year, the Austrian factory struggled with the opposite problem: it had five driver contracts for this season, but only four team places.
Next season, Ajo has been tipped to be the next superstar of the sport as his second driver in the MotoGP class Pedro Acostabut the performance of the fleet also plays a big role. KTM drivers haven’t won a race in two years. The drive is expected to navigate the team back to a successful course.
For the trip, we can expect a significantly increasing media frenzy and politicking probably related to a larger organization. Ajo’s passion for the sport will soon be measured on a new scale.