With two world titles, one in Moto3 and the other in Moto2 under his belt, Pedro Acosta will make the leap to the premier class in 2024. Joining KTM with GasGas Tech3, the Spanish rider hopes to continue evolving, avoiding unnecessary comparisons and pressures.
‘In fact, I didn’t feel any pressure, everything that happened was driven by me. I believe that after a tough year, in quotes, I spent my first year in Moto2, I learned not to pay much attention to what was said from the outside. I listened to what was said inside the box and that was what mattered to me. I tried to distance myself a bit. I would arrive at the races, have a good time, it was clear to me that yes, I wanted to win on the weekends, I tried to focus on doing things and trying to be competitive. In the end, we were fighting for something much more important. When you are so close to achieving something, you want to conquer it. It was a team effort, we shared great moments with them over the last three years. We won the riders’ championship, the teams’ championship, achieved more poles, more victories, more front rows’, Acosta recalled in an interview with Marca.
The Shark of Mazarrón has already tested the machine he will be riding in his debut year in the premier class.
‘I have been on a KTM since I was 14, it’s been almost seven years. I have to be more than happy. The bike is very competitive and will be even more competitive, because KTM’s project for MotoGP is one of the biggest. I have no doubt that the bike will be competitive, however, there are things to improve, details, but we are happy with this test,’ he emphasized, referring to the tests that took place in Valencia a few weeks ago.
‘I agree with what Marc Márquez said, because that is the reality. We have to see how many years KTM has in the world championship and how it has evolved so quickly. The project is six or seven years old. It is very little time for the level at which the bike is. It has a huge factory behind it, they are investing a lot of money and have many people involved. I was in Austria a few weeks ago and I could hardly imagine the amount of people involved. They are clear that they want to be the best, what to do to achieve that goal. The KTM project will be one of the biggest evolutions within the MotoGP teams. I said it in May, in August and I continue to say the same thing: my goal is to continue with KTM, because of the years we have been together, the relationship we have, because the bike is being very competitive. My goal is to achieve good results with KTM’, he added.
Prudent, Acosta does not set goals in this debut season in the premier class of two wheels.
‘It is very difficult to talk about a reality when you are 19 years old and have been on a motorcycle only once. It’s similar to people who compare me to Marc Márquez. You can compare, but neither the season is the same, nor the motorcycles are the same, nor the number of people is similar. It’s MotoGP, the league where the greatest are. It’s an honor to race with people like Marc Márquez, Bagnaia, Jorge Martín, riders who, in some way, have already made history. But you have to face all of this calmly. The worst thing that can happen is expectations. On the contrary, it’s an honor for them to say that I am the new Marc Márquez, but Marc Márquez is Marc Márquez and I am Pedro Acosta. There is nothing more to it and it doesn’t hurt me. On the contrary, it’s a reason for pride. Just like they said Marc was the new Valentino Rossi and Rossi was said to be the new [Mick] Doohan. It’s a snowball that keeps getting bigger’, he concluded.
