The new MotoGP season presents many new features. Standing out above all is Marc Marquez's debut on a satellite Ducati after eleven seasons with the official Honda team. But the arrival of a rider of the quality and talent of Alex Rins in a Yamaha in difficulty, from which Franco Morbidelli left to get on a Prima Pramac Racing factory Ducati, also generates great interest.
The arrival of Luca Marini at Honda, or that of Johann Zarco at Team LCR… But if there is a truly special attraction in next season's MotoGP, it is none other than the debut of the young Pedro Acosta, who just 19 years old arrives in the premier class ready to challenge the world.
Less than three years ago, on March 28, 2021, Acosta made his World Championship debut, taking second place in the Qatar GP. After winning the Moto3 title in his first year and the Moto2 title in his second, just 1,079 days after his entry into the MotoGP world championship, less than three years later, the Spaniard will debut in MotoGP on 10 March 2024, again in Losail.
Many believe that, in his first year, he will be able to fight for a victory which, if successful, would make him the youngest driver ever to do so.
The current level of the riders in the premier class, together with the level and number of Ducati riders on the track, complicate an objective that is not even in the rider's plans. “It's stupid to talk about victories or fighting for the title when I've only been on the bike for one day,” he said after the Valencia test.
The test was the Spaniard's first contact with a MotoGP prototype. “I was very happy with my first contact with the category, for everything. From the first photo taken at nine in the morning to the fall at five in the afternoon. I was happy with the whole day”, declared Acosta, satisfied with his first experience in riding a MotoGP.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Pedro Acosta, Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing
In November 2022 KTM had “rewarded” Acosta with a test, together with Dani Pedrosa, in Jerez. Test which, in the end, could not be carried out due to bad weather conditions. Valencia was therefore, on paper, the Spaniard's first opportunity to ride a MotoGP prototype, even if it wasn't anything bike-related that caught his attention.
“The thing that surprised me the most was not the bike itself, but the number of people around me in the garage. I come from a big Moto2 team, but there were five people in the garage. Here, every time I I got off the bike, I had 20 or 30 people around me, listening to what I was saying.”
“And maybe ten of these twenty people were just giving you advice to make your life easier. Because it's true that the bike runs, it runs a lot. There comes a moment when you have to put the lowering device on, take it off, brake, take the curve… … at the beginning it was a bit of a drag”, joked the boy from Puerto de Mazarrón.
Acosta, who last year, in his second season in Moto2, had already worked on his physique to gain strength and mass, said that this winter he will invest time and effort “in strengthening the upper body, because MotoGP is very physical and you have to move it with force,” he explained. “Last year I gained strength and mass, but next to these guys I look skinny,” he said, referring to his new rivals in the premier class.
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