Pedro Acosta has found his rhythm at KTM after a difficult few months – test rider Pol Espargaro explains what has led to the upturn
After a difficult start to the 2025 MotoGP season, Pedro Acosta seems to have found his footing again with KTM. The young Spaniard, who struggled with the idiosyncrasies of the current RC16 at the start of the season, has shown a significant improvement in form in recent Grands Prix.
He has now stood on the podium four times since Brno, including sprints, and has established himself alongside Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi as one of Marc Marquez’s closest rivals.
And that’s after things got pretty tense between Acosta and KTM at times. He complained about his poor form and flirted with other teams. KTM criticized the Spaniard for being too pessimistic and told him to control his emotions better.
However, intensive discussions between the two sides smoothed the waters, and the latest KTM updates finally bore fruit on the track. Test rider Pol Espargaro, himself a long-time KTM factory rider, has first-hand insight into Acosta’s development and the progress within the team, and emphasizes one point in particular.
Pol Espargaro: “Pedro is taking that step right now.”
“Good communication is crucial in all areas of life, and sometimes that’s exactly what we lack in teams,” he explains. There needs to be clear communication between management, technicians, and riders so that everyone is pulling in the same direction. This process was particularly important for Acosta.
“I understand him completely. He’s young, incredibly talented, and then he sees riders with less talent finishing ahead of him. That feels unfair, and in a way it is. But MotoGP is not a fair sport.”
“Sometimes you have to be satisfied with sixth place, and accepting that is part of growing up,” says the experienced Spaniard, now a KTM test rider.
This maturing process seems to have begun for Acosta. While he struggled with frustration and high expectations in the first races of the year, he has learned in the second half of the season to build on results, even if a podium finish is not possible every weekend.
“It’s a learning curve that every rider has to go through. Pedro is taking that step right now, and you can see it in his results,” says Espargaro. However, the KTM test rider also attributes a significant part of the recent improvement in performance to the technical upgrades to the RC16.
KTM has been working on updates, and with success
The factory made noticeable progress during private testing in Barcelona during the summer break: “We had some difficult phases, but the factory is working tirelessly. We are now supplying the guys with very good material.” Such as the new aero package.
“When you fight for a long time and then finally get improvements, it suddenly becomes easier to achieve good results, and that motivates everyone,” emphasizes Espargaro. Especially in direct comparison with Ducati, KTM has been able to significantly reduce the gap.
For Acosta, this means better conditions to showcase his extraordinary talent. After the setbacks at the start of the season, he has proven that he is ready to persevere and work on the necessary details. When asked what is missing for his first win of the season, he is above all self-critical.
“At the moment, we are still missing a complete, flawless weekend. On Friday in Hungary, for example, we were really fast, but then I messed everything up in qualifying on Saturday. And it’s exactly those kinds of things that I need to improve in order to be really consistent,“ said Acosta at Balaton.
”We’ve now found a way to be in the top 5 on a regular basis, but when you’re in the top 5 all weekend and you make such a big mistake in qualifying, it becomes more and more difficult to get back to the front.”
“In the last few Grands Prix, since Brno, I’ve always shown good comebacks, but you can’t always rely on a comeback to save the weekend. That’s why we now have to see how we can get a better grip on qualifying and start further up the grid,” said the Spaniard.
