{"id":86230,"date":"2025-08-22T00:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/86230\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T00:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:34:08","slug":"ducati-were-waiting-for-one-motogp-rider-with-open-arms-but-he-had-to-turn-them-down-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/86230\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducati were waiting for one MotoGP rider ‘with open arms’ but he had to turn them down for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At recent events, some MotoGP riders have managed to find significant improvement with their bikes, and results have started to look better.<\/p>\n

The two that stand out the most are Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta<\/a>, who now look like challenging for podiums at every race.<\/p>\n

Aprilia won at Silverstone, while KTM<\/a> are still awaiting a return to the top for the first time in four years, but they have the young and hungry talent to be able to do so.<\/p>\n

With a strong second half of the season, both riders could end up finishing in the top five of the MotoGP<\/a> standings.<\/p>\n

Acosta has \u2018a lot of space\u2019 to improve<\/a>, according to two-time champion Casey Stoner, who has been observing his talents this year.<\/p>\n

After the Austrian Grand Prix, Acosta said he suffered \u2018a lot\u2019<\/a> with managing his front tyres, and was virtually defenceless as Gresini rival Fermin Aldeguer flew past him.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u2018Discombobulated\u2019 Pedro Acosta is taking action after what he\u2019s seen KTM give one teammate<\/a><\/p>\n

\"PedroPhoto by Gold & Goose Photography\/Getty ImagesDucati were waiting \u2018with open arms\u2019 to sign Pedro Acosta for 2026 but he had to reject VR46<\/p>\n

Acosta thinks he could beat Marc Marquez on a Ducati<\/a>, despite his fellow countryman being on one of the best runs of form in history.<\/p>\n

For a while, he has been considered as a sort of successor to the 32-year-old, but being stuck with a KTM bike, which has struggled for large parts of the year, hasn\u2019t helped him.<\/p>\n

According to Spanish journalist Mela Chercoles, Acosta actually had to reject a chance to move to VR46 for 2026 earlier in the season, and has \u2018accepted\u2019 that he cannot leave KTM due to being under contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discourse has already changed from the previous race. In the first part of the championship, he was furious because he wanted to leave KTM.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was disappointed because they hadn\u2019t given him the material they had promised him, and he knew there was a Ducati waiting for him with open arms in Valentino Rossi\u2019s team. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow that he\u2019s accepted that he won\u2019t be able to leave, that he\u2019ll have to be with KTM for the rest of this year and next, the discourse is different, and KTM has also reacted. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Aragon, they tried things that worked. The new fairing, he asked for it a while ago, he had it here at his disposal. It makes the bike rev faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Pedro Acosta will be delighted to hear what multiple MotoGP teams are \u2018ready\u2019 to do for the 2027 season<\/a><\/p>\n

How Pedro Acosta\u2019s recent KTM form shows an encouraging positive trend<\/p>\n

Including sprint races, Acosta has finished inside the top four in each of his last four starts. He\u2019s picking up solid points now.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s level on points with both VR46 riders in fifth and sixth, and arguably has done so on an inferior bike. Brad Binder\u2019s RC16 performance says it all.<\/p>\n

He will be expecting to finish in the top five of the standings now and carry some positive momentum into the final year of the current regulations.<\/p>\n

A complete reset for 2027 will hand all riders a level playing field. Only then will Acosta know whether he can challenge the likes of Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo for his first title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At recent events, some MotoGP riders have managed to find significant improvement with their bikes, and results have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,27485,806,805,803,804,10734,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-86230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati","11":"tag-ktm-factory-racing","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-pedro-acosta","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86230","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=86230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}