Pedro Acosta: “Crazy to talk targets after one day”

Pedro Acosta, the most hyped MotoGP rookie since Marc Marquez, says that he has learned from his 2022 Moto2 ‘disaster’ and won’t be setting any goals for his debut premier-class campaign.

After winning the 2021 Moto3 world championship as a rookie, Acosta was tipped to make it two titles in a row in Moto2 the following year.

Instead, Acosta finished no higher than seventh place during the opening seven grands prix.

The Spanish teenager got his season back on track with victory at Mugello, then a further podium in Germany, only to fracture his leg in a summer training accident. After his return, he took two more wins for fifth in the world championship.

“The only season I put goals on my back was 2022 and you saw it was a disaster,” said Acosta, who made amends by adding the Moto2 title to his formidable CV last year.

“In the end, you cannot expect me to talk about targets after one day [of testing] on the bike. It would be quite crazy,” he added, referring to his MotoGP debut at last November’s Valencia test, when he was 18th quickest but within 1.3s of the top.

“Let’s see how the Sepang Shakedown and Official test goes.”

But the 19-year-old warned that even his MotoGP race debut in Qatar on March 8-10 won’t be representative of a normal weekend.

“I will be six days [testing] in Malaysia then two in Qatar [test], then a race there. So the [race] result in Qatar is not going to be real - like when going to other tracks during the season,” explained the Red Bull GASGAS rider.

For now, his only targets for the upcoming Malaysian outings are to “have as much time as possible on the bike. Try to understand the electronics, how to ride the bike, the tyres, the ride height devices...

“It’s also quite positive if we have some rain in the afternoon in Malaysia to try in the wet.”

Acosta added that he has put on 3kg of muscle during the winter break and is aiming for around 2kg more.

Marquez finished third on his MotoGP debut in Qatar 2013, then won the next time out at COTA, at the age of 20 years and 63 days.

Acosta, who turns 20 on May 25th, will take the honour of youngest premier-class winner away from the #93 if he is victorious during his opening ten grands prix.