Three years ago, Pedro Acosta didn’t have a bike to race in the world championship and at the last moment he managed to find a place in the Ajo-KTM team in Moto3. The Murcian’s response was to win the world championship on his debut, leaving everyone speechless. After a first year in Moto2 with an injury that forced him to stay at home, the separation from his friend and mentor Paco Marmol and some related psychological difficulties, this year he dominated the intermediate class with authority to win his second world title . He will show up at the MotoGP test on November 28th in Valencia with the same business card as a two-time world champion that legends such as Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez already presented.
“It all sounds very good. Before coming to Sepang the other day I saw that two years ago we won the Moto3 title. So it was nice to win it here, as we couldn’t win it in Thailand. I think it was much nicer because it cost us more,” explained the new world champion on Sunday, still under the effects of the emotions of the celebrations.
Even though Rossi and Marquez reached the premier class with two titles, no one has achieved it in just three years: “This doesn’t tell me anything. I’ve had fun these three years. In the end I went from being without a team to making it to the world championship. They weren’t easy situations because I was left stranded a week after signing the contract. So I saw myself as a little out of it, as if everything could end. I told Albert (Valera, the manager, ed)… And everything went well! Things didn’t look good before signing with Aki Ajo. After three years in his team, I assure you that I don’t want to leave now. So I think everything went very well.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Ajo, embraces Aki Ajo
To understand that such a young driver won the second world championship with so much authority, you have to look to the past: “I think the key to this championship was last year. In the end we did a lot of preparation. Things weren’t going well, I got more angry because I wanted to do it well. We didn’t find the setting that I liked because maybe I was very small or I was also very skinny compared to now. I think we’ve made some very big strides in all of this. Now I will arrive in MotoGP without expectations, perhaps this was the aspect that held me back in my first year of Moto2… Having too much. I want to have fun, learn with the team and I think I can learn from the KTM guys.”
For the difference it made, you might think it was an easy title to win: “The hardest thing was managing myself. Last year I crashed not because the bike was bad or because it didn’t allow me to do certain things. The thing is, I wanted to go very fast too soon. I realized that I needed an adaptation process, some time to acclimatise to the class to know what I needed to do on the bike and make things easier. I saw that in Moto3 it was very easy to overtake but in Moto2 I struggled a lot. The first laps I only gained one position when in Moto3 I easily overtook ten or twelve riders. This year I have improved a lot, last year we made progress in overtaking, we improved the start of the race, now we are competitive already from FP1. So I think it’s a bit of a combination of everything, but above all of the mistakes made last year, which we put in a corner saying they couldn’t get out of there.”
There are still two grand prix remaining to finish the season, but with the work already done, a leap to MotoGP is on Acosta’s horizon, where it will be up to how much time he will need to go fast: “I don’t set myself deadlines. I’m very curious to get to the Valencia test, see how a MotoGP team works, the new things I’ll have to understand, how Brad Binder, Augusto Fernandez and Dani Pedrosa ride. I think it will help me take a very big step, more than the setting because this year’s bike was the same from start to finish. Understanding how to brake, turn, these are the things I struggled with last year. I’d like to start off on the right foot to take decisive steps.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Ajo
There are quite a few people who believe that Acosta will fight for victories already in his first year and see him as the new Marc Marquez in the premier class: “It’s always nice that people think these things. It’s also true that I also want to do things right. I’m not saying I want to fight for the world championship because I think it’s a very big thing now. But I would like to do well. I would like to have good races, improve during the year. Why not, at the end of the year be competitive with KTM. We are seeing that Binder, since he has refined his style and makes less aggressive manoeuvres, is always in the top 6. For now let’s say that the bike is a small step backwards to fight for the world championship, but in two years, fortunately or unfortunately for others, KTM will be the best bike on the grid.
One of the steps that will cost Pedro the most effort will be leaving Aki Ajo’s garage, where he has been pampered and helped a lot in his three years in the world championship: “Well, I’m not leaving him completely. In the end, I’m lucky that Aki is like the KTM Academy. Tomás, who is more or less the one who manages the team, makes us go to Barcelona to train, he unites us all a little. apart from my coach in Murcia, which is something else, I took advantage of these three years to go to Barcelona and train with people from MotoGP, to train with a different mentality with more open eyes. Because in Murcia I do what I think I need, but I also have to see what others are doing. Then I won’t leave completely. Even if it will be short, I will take advantage of the winter to be with them. I know they tried everything to have a MotoGP team, it’s true that I have to thank them a lot because I went from not receiving trust from anyone before arriving in Moto3 to the fact that they wanted to create a MotoGP team just for me. This is a very big thing. I know that sooner or later our paths will cross again, whether in the official KTM team or in satellite with them, because the truth is that I really like the idea of going back to working with them.”
Taking advantage of the fact that the Murcian had become a little sensitive to the topic of leaving Aki Ajo, he was asked to tell who this world championship was dedicated to: “I dedicate it to the Pedro for whom things weren’t going well, that Pedro really existed and here in the world championship we haven’t seen it. For me, things not going well means I don’t win, which is undoubtedly my big problem. I have to fix it, I think, but it’s always been that way. The theme is the philosophy that if Pedro Acosta goes to his best in all 22 races, he can win all 22. But unforeseen events arise and it’s not like one can manage everything. So I have to learn to manage those moments.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Ajo
Despite the many successes and victories, Acosta is able to find his weaknesses and reveal that he has come to fear disappointing his team: “Let’s say that those defeats were not my fault or the fault of something that I cannot control . But you also need to be self-critical. Anything other than winning when you wear the KTM colors, plus in an official team with what’s behind it and with all of KTM watching you, is negative. What I’ve learned is that not everything other than winning has to be bad. So the title goes to Pedro who gave everything in training this year.”
Acosta also spent words of thanks for his manager Albert Valera: “He’s the one who gave me the opportunity when no one was looking for me, the story is a bit complicated because at the beginning he didn’t want to take me, no one said so. He was busy with Jorge Lorenzo, but he didn’t want to take me”, revealed the Spaniard.
A driver-manager relationship which, at the beginning, was not as good as it is now: “In the last year and a half we have become closer because I too was very young when I started. I was only 16 years old, now I am close to 20. He was the one who gave me my first contract for the world championship, that contract that disappeared after I signed it. He was the one who suddenly, from one day to the next, made me sign a long-term contract with KTM, which made me move to MotoGP and which is making me move forward with my life, because I’m only 19 and it’s not easy to know how a kid’s head works.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Ajo
Valera himself, in addition to Lorenzo, is the manager of riders such as Aleix Espargaró and Jorge Martín: “When I started having Albert as a manager, he suggested the splendid idea of moving to Andorra and I went to see the country, I had 18 years old and I had never been there before. As soon as I arrived, I spent two days there and I told him: ‘Albert, I’m not leaving my house, I’m feeling depressed. I’m not saying that the country is bad, because It’s very nice, but I got so depressed about not seeing the sun or the beach, that I couldn’t take it anymore. I stayed for four days and no, I didn’t want to stay. I still live at home with my parents. It’s true that now I’m trying to become a little independent, but I’m looking for a house in the street below where I live with my family, I don’t even think you can say that I’m becoming that independent. I feel good in Murcia, the people she got used to seeing me, I go out and what I like is that I’m one of them. No, I’m not someone who likes fame, I don’t even get stopped every ten metres. People have normalized this and I see it as a positive thing. I feel comfortable in Mazarrón, that is, I go to the beach from my house and the new apartment is 20 meters from the beach. This is important, in Andorra I would have difficulty, “even if fiscally it would be an advantage… I prefer to pay”, he assures.
Despite the title, there were no big celebration plans for Sunday evening in Malaysia: “The season isn’t over yet, there are two races that I want to do well, they will be good for the team because apart from that I’m still fighting in this championship, not everything is closed and I think there are many chapters in Moto2 that I would like to close. We are also close to 400 points, and that’s a lot. I would like to do a lot of things in Moto2 before I leave and I don’t have much time left. So I have to hurry ”.
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