Pedro Acosta’s improved consistency in 2026 is partly down to a KTM MotoGP bike that is “more designed for me”, the Murcian feels.
Acosta became the first KTM rider to lead the MotoGP riders’ standings after the Thai Grand Prix, where he won the Sprint and finished second in the Sunday race.
Since then he’s been back on the podium once more, finishing third in the US Grand Prix almost a month ago, and he arrives at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix (24–26 April) still in the top-three in the standings, behind only the two factory Aprilia riders.
Acosta’s biggest problem in 2025 was consistency. In the beginning of the year he crashed a lot, then he spent a while rebuilding his confidence, before ending the year with podiums in each of the last four Sprints and in three of the last five grands prix.
He’s started this season with two podiums from the first three races and the other race, Brazil, he was much more competitive than the other KTM riders, who filled the last three positions on the grid while Acosta himself was in Q2 and finished both races in the top-10.
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His improved performance at the start of this year compared to the start of 2025 is down to improvements made with the KTM RC16, not to increase its performance potential but to make it more “comfortable”, in the words of Acosta.
“We made a very good step this winter, between the Valencia test and Sepang [test],” Pedro Acosta said ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, as reported by the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com.
“I asked for very clear things, not to go faster, to be more comfortable and avoid crashes.
“Now, in a 27-lap race I can push 24 and the rest survive.
“It gives me much more pace, it gives me confidence and I make fewer mistakes. That has been the big step from last year to now.
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“Yes, it is possible that it is a bike more designed for me.”
The 1,000cc era of MotoGP is over at the end of this season and KTM looks unlikely to win this year’s title. Development is ongoing, though, and Acosta says he expects updates during Monday’s post-race test.
“I think there will be something new, whether it works or not, we’ll see,” the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider said.
“These are very logical things, which we should have had for a long time, but they have arrived now.
“Hopefully it will give us that little bit more. To be honest, it’s not that we’re half-a-second short as we were last year.
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“We’re missing a tenth-and-a-half-or-two, but that, after 27 laps, makes a big difference. We have to close that gap little by little and see how far we go.”
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