For Moto3, the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring is one of the most unpredictable stories, because in the 6 years that MotoGP races are held in Spielberg, it is impossible to say in the affirmative whether someone has an advantage: Honda or KTM? Any particular hero pilot? Every season since 2016, the weekends have developed according to a unique scenario.
For 6 years, 8 Moto3 races have been held in Spielberg, as well as MotoGP due to the fact that twice the Red Bull Ring hosted stages-doubleheader?s (two races with a pause per week). And in these 8 races, seven different pilots won, and on different motorcycles.
Joan Mir is so far the only one who managed to take two victories at the Red Bull Ring in the junior class, and on different motorcycles: in 2016 he performed on the client KTM, and in 2017 he moved to the near-factory Honda NSF250R of the Leopard Racing team. Then, in 2018, Marco Bezzecchi took the pole position on KTM, in 2019 – Romano Fenati on Honda, in 2020 – Albert Arenas and Kaito Toba – both on KTM, and finally, Sergio Garcia won a couple of races in 2021 on GasGas and Pedro Acosta on KTM.
The slight advantage of the home track is felt in the KTM results, but Honda drivers have always found themselves either on the podium or in close proximity.
Dennis Foggia was 3rd in the fight with Garcia and Anju last year, Jaime Macia, John McPhee, and Tony Arbolino from three different Honda teams finished on the podium in 2020, not to mention the 100% Honda podium in 2019 (Fenati-Arbolino-McPhee).
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Foggia is the main driver of HRC in Moto3 today, and winning the British Grand Prix made him special: this is the eighth victory in his Moto3 careers, like Maverick Vinales, Alex Rins, Danny Kent, and Jorge Martin. Considering that Kent has not been performing for a long time, and the rest of Dennis’s colleagues are already in MotoGP, the Italian has a great chance to lead the TOP in the status of the most successful Moto3 pilot with 9+ and even with 10+ victories in the class. In addition, the podium at Silverstone was his 20th. Only Maverick Vinales has more – than 22 podiums in Moto3.
Hard times are coming for Honda not only in MotoGP, but also in Moto3, because KTM Factory Racing divides and dominates: Stefan Pire’s holding is represented in the Moto Grand Prix by four brands – KTM, GasGas, Husqvarna, and CFMoto, and each delivers motorcycles to teams, providing incredible factory support! Honda’s plans for Moto3 were exactly the opposite: teams had to buy NSF250R in bundles, but their consumption decreased as support from Mattighofen increased.
At Silverstone, Dennis Foggia brought Honda the 82nd victory in Moto3, and the race with KTM in this regard continues on an equal footing – KTM itself has 80 wins.
From the point of view of Moto3 racing, the Red Bull Ring is not the most interesting track, since here the class pilots drive at full throttle 82% of the time of arrival. This is a pure “killing” of low-capacity motors, but also a great test of endurance.