In his first MotoGP season, Pedro Acosta often fought for the top spots, but he threw away some chances by crashing, which is why he draws a mixed conclusion to the season
Pedro Acosta had a number of highlights in his first MotoGP season. His pace was undeniable from the very first race. Nevertheless, the self-critical Spaniard believes he made far too many mistakes.
“We were in contention for many wins this season. The problem was that I messed up everything,” says Acosta. “The goal of fighting for victories was there. The possibility was realistic, it was not a dream.”
But due to his mostly self-inflicted mistakes, the Tech3-GasGas rider was unable to get beyond second places, which he achieved in Austin and Mandalika. “It’s true that it’s hard to bear how many chances I’ve wasted, but that’s also part of the job,” admits the 20-year-old.
Despite his mistakes, Acosta was in fifth place overall before the season finale in Barcelona, making him the best non-Ducati rider – ahead of fellow KTM rider Brad Binder. However, Binder overtook him with a better result in the last race. In the end, only two points separated the two.
The 2023 Moto2 champion made a big impact at the start of the year by finishing on the podium in just his second Grand Prix at Portimao and then finishing second in the following race at Austin.
Although his results dipped after that, Acosta bounced back after the MotoGP summer break to claim three more podium finishes.
At the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi, he secured his first MotoGP pole and fought for victory in both the sprint and the main race, but crashed. He was not going to accept defeat against the faster Ducatis – even if it meant ending up on the ground with a motorcycle.
When asked how he would rate his first year in MotoGP overall, Acosta says: “Six out of ten, when you take everything into account – all the mistakes I made, all the points I threw away, all the stupid crashes I had and all the things I had to try out.”
“Recently, I’ve tried a lot of things and then raced with other things, without really having had time to work on my weekend.“
”So I would give myself six points because at the beginning I said that the curve would go up, and then we crashed. From my point of view, the last few races may not have been like that, but it wasn’t bad,” said Acosta.
