KTM star hopes “strongest line-up” can lead to a MotoGP “snowball”

Pedro Acosta moves into the factory KTM team for this year’s MotoGP season, and in his place at Tech3 slot two riders who the Spaniard believes help to comprise the best line-up in the Austrian brand’s history in the premier class of Grand Prix racing.

Maverick Vinales’ 26 Grand Prix victories makes him the third-most-victorious rider on the MotoGP grid this year, while Enea Bastianini has won 13 Grands Prix and been a part of the dominant manufacturer of the past few seasons – Ducati – and is thus able to offer valuable insights to KTM regarding the brand it is trying to overhaul.

“They will help for sure,” Acosta said of the two incoming riders at his previous team.

“We have the strongest line-up of KTM’s [history]. I would say that we are the strongest line-up in the whole championship.

“It’s true that they don’t have much experience with KTM, but on the other hand, for example, Maverick [Vinales] won races with three manufacturers, [Enea] Bastianini has all the information in his head about Ducati and he was quite fast in the last couple of years.

“At the end, it’s not a question mark, they will be fast.

“This has to be a ‘snowball’ that comes bigger and bigger. I mean everyone has their strong points, and everyone has their special strong points compared to the other ones – for this maybe we have to put everything together and make a strong line-up.”

For Acosta’s 2025 teammate Brad Binder, the experience of Bastianini and Vinales have on different brands will be a key part of KTM’s development in the upcoming season.

“Of course, with the two guys jumping over from two separate factories at Tech3 it’s going to be a big advantage for us because they still have that feeling fresh, so it’s always easy for them to say where we can improve or what our strong points are,” Binder said.

“For sure I’ve had fast teammates in the past, but I think this year we’ve got quite an impressive line-up and I really believe that it’s going to push our project on, and I’m excited to see how things develop as the season goes on.”

Binder added that KTM’s system of having four factory riders will also be an advantage, as each of the four race riders can contribute towards bike development.

From my experience, especially the last couple of seasons, we’re really four teammates,” Binder said.

“Honestly, it’s one big team. That’s how it’s been the last couple of years in particular, and I really think both of them can bring something special because there’s obviously areas where the Aprilia does things incredibly well and the Ducati as well.

“So, I think together with all of their experience and knowledge [they can] help guide us in a direction of where we can improve and what we need to do to really try to make a big step.

“We saw in the past with Jack [Miller], just with him coming in he could really try and pinpoint some small issues.

“Once we almost headed in that direction that he set out we made a really big step.

“So, I expect the same this season and I think it’s going to be really good for us.”