KTM...Joel Smets – “That’s how you win championships”

With two rounds of the 2026 MXGP World Championship completed, the factory Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team has made a strong and consistent start to the season. Team manager Joel Smets, a five-time world champion himself, is overseeing a line-up that combines the reigning MX2 world champion Simon Längenfelder with the exciting step up of Andrea Adamo into the premier MXGP class.

After unfamiliar and technical tracks at the opening rounds in Argentina and Andalusia, both riders have delivered solid results as they build momentum early in the championship. Smets reflects on Längenfelder’s consistent start, Adamo’s impressive adaptation to the 450, and the dynamic of working with a reigning world champion for the first time.

The Belgian also shares insight into the challenge of defending a title, drawing from his own experience as a multiple world champion, and offers his thoughts on the sensational form of fellow countryman Lucas Coenen after a dominant performance in Spain.

We caught up with Smets as he discusses his riders’ early-season form, the process of learning how to win championships, and the evolving landscape of the MXGP paddock.

GateDrop: Joel, we are two rounds into the championship – steady and consistent, are you happy with both your riders so far this season?

Smets: Yes, absolutely happy how the season has been going for us so far. I just said to the riders also in our debriefing, two tracks we didn’t know, two tracks quite sketchy I would say, but our riders handled it very well. At these tracks, if you don’t have the feeling with it, you better be careful. In Argentina Simon had the feeling, he nailed it, he won it. This weekend he didn’t have that perfect feeling, he enjoyed himself going 3-3. I call it the Ryan Dungey result, that’s how you win championships, so really happy with that.

For Andrea coming into the season, it is his maiden season in the 450 class, we knew it was going to be… not everyone is like Lucas Coenen let’s say. You need to learn a little bit, but the way he’s coping with it, again on those two difficult tracks, even more on the 450, I think than on the 250, he did very well. I am really pleased with how the team has been going so far.

GateDrop: Obviously you’ve worked with Andrea for many years now, Simon, it’s the first time he’s been on your team, obviously he’s a world champion so you don’t need to teach him how to ride a bike, but what’s he been like to work with?

Smets: Every rider has his own character, so you need to get to know each other a little bit. Back in the days when Simon was with the German Diga Procross Gas Gas team, he was already kind of part of our training group, so he was not completely new to me. I knew him a little bit, but so far that’s going good. I really like to, let’s say, analyse characters and find out where I can bring something extra, how I can make them stronger and stuff like that. It’s clear that I’m still in that discovering phase, in the exploring phase. The results have shown that it’s working pretty good so far.

GateDrop: You know how to win world titles, you won five yourself, Simon’s only won one, but the second one would you say is harder to win than the first one? The last person to defend the title is Jorge Prado…

Smets: I think it’s a bit of common knowledge that winning a championship is not easy, but defending it and making it up is more difficult. I’m lucky enough to have experience with that, so I’ll definitely give him the right tips at the right moments.

GateDrop: With Andrea, how have you found him on the 450? I mean, sometimes I feel like Andrea maybe needs a year in a class before you see the best of him, but he’s really took to this 450cc well and he’s pretty much got the speed already…

Smets: We’re really pleased with how Andrea has adapted to the 450cc. To be honest, we were kind of worried, let’s say, because of his riding style on the 450cc, he was more the attacking guy, more the aggressive guy, more the guy that was revving the bike hard and stuff like that. I was kind of concerned like how that was going work, but of course over the winter, my first goal with him was to get him a bit lower with the RPM’s and to make him understand how a 450 is ridden. He’s a quick learner, he really listens very well, he analyses well, and I think the first races have shown that. I think we can even say that he rides the 450cc better than he did the 250cc.

GateDrop: And Lucas Coenen, a quick word on him, I mean he was on a different postcode today, unbelievable…

Smets: He’s shown that already last year at several locations, when I was talking earlier about feeling it and feeling it with the bike and the track, he felt it today and when he feels it, wow, he’s on another level. He’s Belgian so it makes me proud also.