Ajo Motorsport made its first world championship appearance at the Sachsenring in 2001, entering Mika Kallio as a wildcard in the 125cc class. The team became a regular full-season competitor in 2002, with Kallio posting a best of fifth at Jerez and earning the "Rookie of the Year" title ahead of riders including Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo.
In 2003 the team achieved its first race victory when Andrea Ballerini won in Australia in wet conditions, with teammate Masao Azuma second in a Ajo 1-2. Kallio left mid-season for a KTM factory role. For 2005 the team fielded Tomoyoshi Koyama, who won a second "Rookie of the Year" award. The squad experimented with Malaguti machinery in 2006 and Derbi bikes from 2007.
The team's first world title came in 2008 when Mike Di Meglio, riding a Derbi alongside Dominique Aegerter, won four races and clinched the 125cc World Championship in Australia with two rounds to spare. Two years later, in 2010, the team achieved its second 125cc title with Marc Marquez, who dominated the season with twelve poles and ten victories on Derbi machinery.
The 2011 season saw the team split across two entries: the Avant-AirAsia-Ajo team on Derbis and the Red Bull Ajo Motorsport squad on Aprilias, the latter including future Moto2 champion Johann Zarco and future Moto3 champion Danny Kent.
When the 125cc class transitioned to the four-stroke Moto3 category in 2012, Ajo aligned with KTM. The move proved immediately successful: Sandro Cortese claimed the inaugural Moto3 World Championship with the Red Bull KTM Ajo team, taking five victories and nine podiums. Brad Binder joined the programme in 2015 and won the 2016 Moto3 championship.
In 2021 the team achieved arguably its most spectacular Moto3 result when rookie Pedro Acosta won the championship with six victories, becoming the second youngest world champion in the class's history. Acosta then moved to Moto2 in 2022, where Augusto Fernandez won the team's fourth Moto2 title. In 2023 Acosta completed a back-to-back double by also winning the Moto2 world championship with seven victories, before graduating to MotoGP.
Ajo entered the Moto2 class in 2015 with Johann Zarco, who won eight races and took the championship that year and retained it in 2016, giving the team back-to-back Moto2 crowns. In 2021 Remy Gardner won the Moto2 title by four points from Raul Fernandez after a season-long battle, both riders taking multiple wins and podiums. The 2022 title went to Augusto Fernandez, whose four victories and five podiums carried him to the championship.
Among the most notable drivers developed through the programme are Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira, both of whom progressed through Ajo's Moto3 and Moto2 squads before reaching MotoGP; Jack Miller, who finished second in the 2014 Moto3 championship by two points; and Johann Zarco, a two-time Moto2 champion who went on to MotoGP with multiple manufacturers.
The team's ten world championship titles are: 125cc championship with Mike Di Meglio in 2008 and Marc Marquez in 2010; Moto3 championship with Sandro Cortese in 2012, Brad Binder in 2016, and Pedro Acosta in 2021; Moto2 championship with Johann Zarco in 2015 and 2016, Remy Gardner in 2021, Augusto Fernandez in 2022, and Pedro Acosta in 2023.
The team also contested the MotoE championship from 2019, with Niki Tuuli winning the opening round of its debut season before the Jerez fire cut the calendar short.
Gallery · 4 related images



