“I was 16 and had more cameras on me than Marc Marquez!”
Pedro Acosta is still just 19 but, particularly in Spain, there is optimism that he will have a long and successful career in the premier class which could garner the type of attention usually reserved for Marc Marquez.
Acosta insists he is already growing accustomed to the pressure that comes with extra attention.
"I don't think about that," he told Speedweek when asked about being MotoGP’s next star.
“If you never got that kind of attention in Moto3 then maybe people would think about things like that.
“You have to imagine: I was 16, got into Moto3 and suddenly had more cameras on me than Marquez or Fabio Quartararo.
“I was followed by a camera all day… People were crazy, especially in Spain.
“That was more difficult than it is now, almost 20 years old.
“But we have to understand people, they are fans and we can be their heroes.
“So we have to understand that when people come to a race they want photos and everything.
“That's part of the job."
Acosta is so highly touted that his demand to progress from Moto2 into MotoGP next season has forced KTM to scramble to find a seat.
Their hopes to buy an existing satellite team - even leading to speculation that Acosta and Marquez could form a dream team - appear to have been dismissed.
But KTM insist they will keep their current four riders - Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Pol Espargaro, Augusto Fernandez - while finding additional space for Acosta.
That could mean a seat at LCR Honda, the satellite team that KTM might then hope to acquire in 2025.
Acosta said about the future of MotoGP: “I understand that Dorna wants to make the sport more attractive to young people.
“But we have a problem: In many countries, people have to pay to watch the races on TV. This is not good.
“When I was little, I remember watching the races on TV in every restaurant at lunchtime.
“Maybe you don't like it, maybe you don't really care to follow the race - but you've always seen the races.
“So you knew who Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi or Cal Crutchlow were.
"How are we going to get people to know about MotoGP these days if we don't give everyone a chance to see it?
“For example, in a family with two children, if the mother doesn't work and only the father works, then the first thing they will do is cut pay TV, Netflix and those things.
“I believe that hard times will come to us.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
