Eric de Seynes between Moto2 and the REDS project: what's behind the acquisition of Fantic

Friday, 23 January 2026 at 16:30

by Marc Seriau/paddock-gp

At a time when Tech3 is lowering the French flag, the acquisition of the Fantic Racing Moto2 team by Éric de Seynes allows French fans to continue expressing their support for a top-tier squad in the MotoGP World Championship, but the project does not end there and is far from finished...

The press release is very concrete regarding the acquisition of this previously Italian team, but the overall message from Éric de Seynes, extremely ambitious yet captivating, goes well beyond the mere acquisition of a team, as he kindly confided to us in advance on Christmas Day (a wonderful gift!), and as you can now discover exclusively.

"The acquisition of the team was finalized a few days ago" said Eric de Seynes, referring to the period just before Christmas. "But I am awaiting final approval from DORNA, in agreement with IRTA, regarding acceptance of the transfer of ownership. That’s why, despite some rumors, I prefer to remain discreet about the operation at this stage. Afterwards, I’ll be free to talk about it.

The way it happened deserves a broader explanation, because the goal of the operation is not simply to become the owner of a Moto2 team. I am integrating this acquisition into a much more comprehensive strategy that includes controlling a top-level team at this level of motorcycling to support a project encompassing cultural, image, educational, and sporting objectives for the benefit of motorcycling in France. The scope of the project also explains the team’s name: REDS, which stands for Racing for Education, Development and Sport."

Fantic’s troubles and the museum in France

"First of all, Fantic is going through a period of financial difficulty, having been heavily hit by the e-bike crisis that followed the sales boom during the Covid pandemic. They needed to divest from their cost centers and were looking for a solution to delegate Moto2 representation to an independent team.

Secondly, I found a unique and incredible location in France that will allow me to bring together the activities of a museum, a technical training school, and a sports team dedicated to excellence in top-level competition.

In fact, I am deeply motivated to develop a comprehensive strategy that allows me to give back to motorcycling what it has allowed me to experience throughout my life. This means that today I have a project that is perhaps a bit too ambitious, but at some point you have to start from an ambition. If you want to achieve an impactful result, you have to start from a big ambition. So even if you only reach 80%, the impact will still be significant.

So, if we continue with the two initial ingredients, we have a top-level professional team (Moto2 World Champion 2025) and a circuit."

History of motorcycling

"The project involves creating a unique place in France, located about 140 km from Paris and 100 km from Le Mans, which will be dedicated to motorcycling with a living museum, a documentation center, a conference center, a school of excellence for training mechanics and engineers who intend to work in the world of international competition, and one or more partner teams that will become part of a support network for young French and foreign riders" explained Eric de Seynes.

"For the museum, the idea is to draw on the motorcycles I have already collected, as well as those from other collectors. However, the museum’s goal is to ensure that all the motorcycles are operational and in perfect condition, allowing visitors to retrace the history of motorcycling in all its forms, from the early 20th century to the present day. The content will be very comprehensive and also highly educational. It’s not about displaying hundreds of motorcycles in a row, simply in chronological order.

I have many ideas in this regard, and there will be numerous ‘exhibitions’ or ‘themes’ that will highlight technologies (frame, brakes, tires, suspensions, fuel, safety, etc.), designers (Chevallier, Offenstadt, Elf, Fior, Nougier, JBB, etc.), manufacturers, champions, people, iconic places, and so on. The visitor journey will be interactive with numerous images and archival footage, but also with two ‘live’ demonstrations on weekends, on asphalt and on a TT track, exclusively dedicated to this purpose."

Eyes on the future

"What I would like is for this cultural space, fully accessible, to be linked to building the future and training the talents of tomorrow" continued the new head of Fantic Moto2. "For this reason, I intend to associate this space with a training school for engineers and mechanics destined for top-level competition. The students (about a dozen per year) would follow a two-year program. The first year would be dedicated to maintaining the museum’s racing bikes, which must all remain in perfect condition. This may require regenerating some components, and the production period of the bikes ranges from 1923 to 2025, since I own MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3, Superbike, Supersport, endurance, MX, and the latest rally bikes.

Therefore, students will be able to work with the latest technologies, but also understand their origins, having had the opportunity to work with the most successful innovations of each decade. This is the central idea: by the end of this first year, students should have developed a solid understanding of the evolution of technology over the last century. They will have gained a good understanding of how it works, how it was created before them and, above all, how others have sought to improve technologies in their time.

After this first year rich in learning, the second year will be more focused on practical application. Each student will be assigned to a racing team that will compete in the world championship and will split their time between theoretical and practical courses and field activities. The goal is for all students to be placed in a professional team at the end of the two years."

The sporting front

"Finally, on the sporting front, I would like to contribute to the implementation of a solid rider development program that allows young French riders, as well as those from other nations, to reach the highest levels of our sport. For nearly twenty years, I have seen a series of obstacles and barriers that hinder riders’ progress. In short, the base of the pyramid is too fragmented and the number of riders per category is sometimes too limited to allow for proper selection. Moreover, financing our sport is difficult, and selection is sometimes based more on the parents’ financial means than on the child’s talent. Parents sometimes make enormous sacrifices so their child can reach a higher international category, even if the child will never be able to progress to the next level.

Today there are missing bridges between the various world championships, even though allowing young riders to compete in some less expensive championships could increase the number of riders considered in the development program. We would gain a lot by considering the best possible pathways between Motosport and the future Moto3, Motosport and Supersport, Supersport and Moto2, Moto3 and Moto2... It seems to me that with a real team, serious selection processes based on the talent and abilities of young riders, and careful support to help them grow in depth, we could build a more solid future for the next generation of riders. Everyone must understand the enormous gap between national and world championships, where currently much of each generation is held back by a lack of preparation, a lack of rigor, often a lack of hard work, a lack of time on track, and an inability to properly understand the demands of the level they are aiming for.

Obviously, I will try to bring people together around this project, which must become a virtuous and ambitious collective force for our sport. Every well-intentioned stakeholder ready to invest in this cause should be able to find their place. But for now, the acquisition of Team REDS Fantic Racing, the reigning world champion, provides us with a final destination team that gives credibility and legitimacy to the entire program. We still have to work and unite..."

What a project!

After this explosive announcement, which has shaken the French motorsport world, readers are probably already a bit stunned by the enormous scope of the task that lies ahead for Éric de Seynes.

But this unconventional entrepreneur, whose talent is as vast as his address book, has not yet revealed all the details of his ambitious project, and we have good reason to believe that the situation will change soon.

The French aim to bring themselves up to the level of the Spanish and Italians, if all this is confirmed. Stay tuned here to learn more about this fascinating initiative!