Pedro Acosta on Ducati: “It wasn’t about a million more or less”

After winning the 2020 Red Bull Rookies Cup, Pedro Acosta moved up to the Moto3 World Championship and was crowned champion straight away. He finished his first Moto2 season in 2022 in fifth place overall, and went on to become world champion the following year. The 22-year-old has been competing in MotoGP since 2024, finishing his first two years in sixth and fourth place in the world championship. Ahead of this weekend’s races in Austria, he is fifth in the standings.

Acosta has spent his entire career with KTM, but after this season, the Mattighofen-based team’s star rider will move to Ducati, where he will be team-mate to world champion and championship leader Marc Márquez in 2027 and 2028. “I tried to persuade Pedro to stay with us,” emphasised KTM Managing Director Gottfried Neumeister during one of his rare visits to a MotoGP event this weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. “I still get goosebumps when I think about what he told me. He said it wasn’t about a million more or less. We’ve seen riders who were on the best bike at the start of the season and signed elsewhere purely for financial reasons. He said that didn’t fit with his approach to racing. Even if we had a better 850cc bike, it would be important to him, as a Spaniard, to be able to beat Marc Márquez on equal terms. I had no rebuttal to arguments like that.”

It’s not just Pedro Acosta who brings out the best

“I’ll always feel nothing but the best when I see him in future,” added the Austrian. “You always meet twice in life; he does his best for the team. After Misano, I rang Pit Beirer because I was so upset by what people were saying – that only Pedro could get the most out of the bike. But it’s not just Pedro. The situation is what it is. If Pedro didn’t have a motorbike capable of delivering such results, he wouldn’t be able to achieve them either. I’ll never underestimate his consistent effort, but behind every great rider there’s a team that makes all the difference.”

Instead of Acosta and Brad Binder, we’ll be seeing Alex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio at Red Bull KTM over the next two years. Speaking about them, Neumeister said: “I’m very confident that we’re well positioned with the riders we’ve chosen, who are keen to join us. We need to give the team confidence and put their minds at ease. Perhaps we’ll also need to make changes within the team and think about how to structure ourselves so that we’re competitive. I believe 100 per cent in our two future riders; both of them can make the difference. Our ongoing work will ensure our success in the long term. It’s not about half a year or a year; we need to keep improving consistently.”

Topic of the week

Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring: track – hit or miss?

The people of Madrid had set their sights high for their city’s first Formula 1 World Championship race since 1981. But have the high expectations for the new Madring mixed-circuit track really been met?

Mathias Brunner

Read More

TV Program

Tomorrow

Red Bull Ring: International Livestream

MotoGP World Championship

19.09.2026 - 08:35