Before arriving at TT Assen for the MotoGP weekend, in his own words, rookie Pedro Acosta twice, at Le Mans and in Barcelona, had a perfect KTM RC 16 to win. But the young shark wiped out both chances by crashing, something he had time to reflect on during the three-week break after Mugello.
Between the past of the start of the season and the future at KTM which continues to strengthen, the number 31 approaches a Dutch weekend on a TT Assen circuit where his experience is minimal and his record limited (P3 last year in Moto2).
Will the 5th in the championship surprise us again?
As usualwe report his words here without the slightest formatting, even if it is translated from English.
So how was your break?
Pedro Acosta : “Well, doing laps like the devil! I’m super happy to have done a lot of laps, I also tried to focus on the mistakes we made in these seven races, like in Le Mans and Barcelona, but yes, I’m happy!”
In Motocross or on the track?
“On the track, on the track, yes! After the accident in 2022, I left Motocross a little bit aside (laughs).”
Is this something you decided yourself, to no longer do Motocross?
“Well, I do it sometimes, but only in winter, you know, when I have time to recover and do some motocross with friends. But I don’t know, in the end I haven’t seen a jump in the straight of a MotoGP race yet (laughs), and for that I leave it aside.”
You don’t have much experience on this circuit yet due to your injuries. You missed 2022 and I think in 2021 you were still a little injured after crashing. How does it feel to arrive here with only a full weekend of experience, right?
“Yes, like you said, I don’t have much experience. Only one season in the Rookies Cup, this fall during Moto 3 qualifying and also last season. It’s true that our bike works quite well here, as we saw last season with Brad. We know that our bike has improved compared to last season, but everyone has improved too, but we have to be happy because on a circuit where last season we were competitive, normally we are even more so . We have some ideas to avoid the problems we had at Mugello.”
Pedro, is this the most interesting point of the season for you, simply because Assen and the Sachsenring are two very different circuits?
“The problem is that all the circuits are interesting for me at the moment, because I don’t have experience on any of them. In Moto2, I remember that I made a big step between 2022 and 2023 in the way of approaching a weekend. For this, it is true that things are looking good, also because we are coming out of three weeks of hard work also at the factory. We are going for two races in a row, two races where normally we are quite fast, and we go straight to another break. For this, let’s see if we find something in these three weeks of work.”
You said that this way you can avoid the problems you had. Are you talking about vibrations?
“A little bit of everything, a little bit of everything: a little bit of stability, a little bit of skating, a little bit of stuff, you know. It’s true that we don’t have a big problem at the moment, we have a lot of little ones that, together, become a pretty big one. There’s also the fact that all these little problems are happening at the same time. That’s what you feel much more than if you started to separate everything. Well, they come with very good ideas, so we’ll see what happens.”
What is the biggest lesson you learned from the first seven races?
“First of all, I have to stay calm, otherwise see what happened at Le Mans and Barcelona. On the other hand, we have to try to analyze all the small details, because at the moment MotoGP is very tight, and all these small details make a big difference. For example, we can see how fast we were able to be in America, or be 5th in Mugello. For this we must be calm.”
We’ve seen a lot of changes in the last few weeks, a lot of new driver announcements for next year. Which driver announcement surprised you the most and which one are you most looking forward to for next year?
“Are you only talking about the KTM side? To be honest, the news about Maverick surprised me a lot. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this as I had read a lot about him and other builders. But on the other hand, I wasn’t particularly expecting anyone. To be honest, I’m super, super happy to have this line-up, the most competitive from Pierer Mobility since the brand started the championship, and also certainly one of the strongest in the entire grid. We will see how Aprilia and Honda finish their line up, but for me it is one of the strongest. For this, I think it will be very important to have the impression of these two guys and also to listen to their experience, you know, because we will have one guy who only comes from Ducati, while the other has been fast with every brand he’s been to, Maverick with Suzuki or Yamaha or Aprilia. For that, let’s take Maverick’s experience and say a young Bastianini right now could be a good mix with me and Brad.”
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