{"id":505584,"date":"2026-02-26T15:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505584\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:20:09","slug":"pedro-acosta-says-he-is-not-ktms-fastest-rider-coming-into-motogp-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505584\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedro Acosta says he is not KTM\u2019s fastest rider coming into MotoGP 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pedro Acosta says he is currently comparing himself to team-mate Brad Binder, who he believes is \u201cthe fastest KTM rider\u201d coming into the 2026 MotoGP season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1040772\/pedro-acosta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pedro Acosta<\/a> ended pre-season testing at Buriram as the leading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/red-bull-ktm-factory-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KTM<\/a> rider, picking up from where he left off at the end of 2025, where he was the brand\u2019s only consistent podium finisher.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/939427\/brad-binder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Binder<\/a>, by contrast, failed to score a podium last season and was 152 points adrift of Acosta in the championship.<\/p>\n<p>The South African also had a low-key pre-season, struggling for pace up until the closing stages of the Buriram test.<\/p>\n<p>However, Acosta considers him to be the reference rider at KTM ahead of this weekend\u2019s Thai Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt all depends on how far or close you are,\u201d he told the media on Thursday at Buriram.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I compare myself to Binder because he has confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the moment, he is the fastest KTM rider, and it is important to look at the fastest riders, even if it is difficult to make all the necessary comparisons during testing because maybe one rider is doing a different job from another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gng_1292947_hires.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Brad Binder, KTM Factory Racing, 2026 Buriram test\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Brad Binder, KTM Factory Racing, 2026 Buriram test<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p>  Binder breakthrough comes late in pre-season testing<\/p>\n<p>Speaking last weekend after the Buriram test, Binder noted that his race simulation ultimately confirmed to him that a major set-up change was needed.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Those changes to the balance of the RC16 ultimately proved to be the correct move, with Binder more confident at the end of the test.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday was pretty much a day of two halves,\u201d he said last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis morning was not great, but then I did the full race simulation in the afternoon, and it really confirmed my feelings that we need to change something with the set-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter that, we ended up making a big change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did the last time attack in the afternoon and things were much better.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, happy with that, and I\u2019m looking forward to exploring this area more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was really balance, we made a big shift in the balance and everything started to work better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pedro Acosta says he is currently comparing himself to team-mate Brad Binder, who he believes is \u201cthe fastest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,13844,806,805,803,804,10734,10670,85],"class_list":["post-505584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brad-binder","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\/505584","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=505584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}