Pedro Acosta is set for his first MotoGP season with Tech3-GasGas, the second KTM team in the field – he would be contractually free for the period from 2025 if …
Although he has not yet competed in a single MotoGP race, Pedro Acosta is already a player on the MotoGP transfer market. The reason: 2024, the year in which the current Moto2 World Champion makes his debut in the premier class, is the year in which the contracts of most MotoGP riders expire
At the moment – just over a month before the 2024 MotoGP season kicks off – only two of the 22 regular riders know where they will be riding in 2025. Luca Marini, who joined the Honda factory team from VR46-Ducati in the winter, has signed a two-year contract with HRC until the end of 2025. Brad Binder is under contract with KTM for one year longer, until the end of 2026.
For the other 20 MotoGP regular riders, the next few months will be all about either recommending themselves to their current employer or to other manufacturers or teams for the period after 2025. This includes Pedro Acosta, who is the only rookie in the 2024 MotoGP field. During the shakedown test in Sepang these days, Acosta set the absolute fastest time. That is remarkable, even though not the entire field lined up.
When asked by the Spanish-language version of Motorsport.com whether he sees a deadline by which he has to prove himself for 2025, Acosta replied with reference to his manager Albert Valera: “All these things are dealt with by my manager. I don’t know anything about it myself. I prefer to concentrate on myself and on riding my bike. After all, that’s what makes the difference in the end. “
Interesting fact: Acosta has a clause in his current contract that lets him ride for Tech3-GasGas in 2024. This clause states that he can leave the KTM family if he does not get a place in the KTM factory team for 2025. Because Brad Binder is set to ride there until the end of 2026, Jack Miller would have to make way if Acosta is actually promoted to the KTM factory team after just one MotoGP season.
Acosta does not want to go too far out on a limb with this scenario. The 19-year-old shooting star only says this much at the moment: “I don’t know any dates. I don’t know whether the rider market will start moving in two or three months’ time. As far as KTM is concerned, I remain calm. I know that if the decisions are not made in two months, then they will be made in three or four months, or even at the end of the season. I’m not worried about that. “
Acosta is in no doubt that the premier class MotoGP is the racing series in which he wants to spend the coming years. “I had already suspected it, but in Valencia, life showed me that this is the environment I want to be in,” he recalls of his first MotoGP test for Tech3-GasGas. This took place on November 28, 2023 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near Valencia and Acosta made a strong impression straight away.
And Acosta goes one step further by noting that he would prefer to stay “inside the KTM bubble”. “It’s only a matter of time before we decide what to do next,” says the young Spaniard before he has even competed in his first MotoGP race
