{"id":334499,"date":"2025-12-08T08:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334499\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:07:08","slug":"why-pedro-acosta-paused-mass-damper-use-during-2025-motogp-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334499\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pedro Acosta paused mass damper use during 2025 MotoGP season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pedro Acosta has explained why he elected not to join the Tech3 riders in continuing to experiment with KTM\u2019s mass damper system during the 2025 MotoGP<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

After the factory’s early turmoil, Acosta <\/a>and his crew settled on two effective base set-ups for the RC16, which he used to claim twelve podiums in the second half of the year on his way to fourth in the world championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried at the beginning of the season, and we removed it. I had enough to do [without] even thinking [about] the mass damper,\u201d Acosta said at the penultimate round in Portimao.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite happy with the bike that I have now. I have two base setups. If I need one thing, we go in one direction. If I need other things, I go in another direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd generally, that’s working quite okay for me. I know the bikes that I have. And I work around the problems that I have.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor these reasons, and because it’s only two races to go, it’s not really necessary to put [new] things. We will have one day in Valencia to try all these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KTM <\/p>\n

KTM rear seat unit, with Brad Binder, 2025 Valencia MotoGP Test<\/p>\n

Acosta, like the other KTM <\/a>riders, duly tested different ‘mass damper’ boxes on the back of his machines at Valencia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, after losing the morning to a damp track, he made clear, \u201cthe priority for today was the aero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the season, Tech3\u2019s Maverick Vinales<\/a> explained the benefits and challenges of perfecting the mass damper.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt’s very important to make it work, because if it works, it’s a good improvement, it can take out a lot of vibrations. So basically, you can be faster,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The problem was that sometimes \u201cwhen it’s very hot, the configuration is not always the same during the run, so then the chatter increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vinales also confirmed that just because a rider was using the larger seat unit, it didn\u2019t mean there was something inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only have the structure, but I don’t have the mass damper,\u201d he said at Mugello.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to use it, because I think it’s a step, but at the moment we need a little bit more time. Because in Austin, it was working really well until something happened, and then the vibration was huge and I could not finish the sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Honda <\/p>\n

Honda rear seat unit ‘hump’, 2025 Valencia MotoGP Test<\/p>\n

Honda<\/a> likewise experimented with revised rear seat humps during 2025, widely believed to contain a new version of a mass damper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we are testing, and we need a bit more time,\u201d Luca Marini<\/a> said at Portimao, before refusing to confirm or deny the device\u2019s presence: \u201cWe cannot talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pedro Acosta has explained why he elected not to join the Tech3 riders in continuing to experiment with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,6399,806,805,803,804,10734,10670,85],"class_list":["post-334499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ktm","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-pedro-acosta","tag-red-bull-ktm-factory-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}