KTM’s 2024 MotoGP line-up is already starting to look set in stone despite the backlog of talent the factory has within its ranks – with superstar Pedro Acosta appearing increasingly likely to remain in the middleweight class regardless of how the current season plays out for him.
Starting the year as title favourite and taking over as lead rider in Aki Ajo’s KTM-branded team after 2022 champion and former team-mate Augusto Fernandez stepped up to the premier class for 2023, Acosta has so far lived up to the hype by taking two wins from four races to push himself into the championship lead.
But with Fernandez – MotoGP’s only rookie this year – enjoying an increasingly solid season of his own, with the Gas Gas rider currently outscoring the likes of Joan Mir and Raul Fernandez (and the returning Marc Marquez), it seems that he has already achieved enough to cement his place for 2024 and avoid the fate of his predecessor Remy Gardner, who was jettisoned from KTM’s project during his own rookie season 12 months ago.
But, while Acosta may be a potential future star that KTM is desperate to keep in its ranks (and not repeat the mistake it made in losing Marc Marquez to Honda a decade ago), it also seems that it’s learned from some of its past mistakes and, according to director of motorsport Pit Beirer, is keen to move forward more carefully in the future.
“If you’re asking me what my sensible solution is,” the brand’s motorsport boss told German publication Speedweek last week, “I’d like Pedro Acosta to stay in Moto2 for another year.
“The boy is so young! When he moves up to MotoGP at the age of 19, you have to keep in mind: Dani Pedrosa just showed in Jerez that you can still be successful in MotoGP at the age of 37.
“Pedro is so fast and so good, he has no stress and no time pressure to get into the premier class.
“We’re trying to stick to the fact that young riders in the respective classes get older and gain experience and don’t just spend a year there and use this category as a jumping-off point for the next class.”
That doesn’t seem like a move that Acosta is particularly opposed to, either, thanks no doubt to the lack of competitive MotoGP seats available elsewhere in 2024 and probably helped somewhat by the impressive form that the KTM RC16 has been showing of late in the hands of factory riders Jack Miller and Brad Binder.
Aware that when the time comes to move up it might not necessarily be in KTM orange but rather in the red of Gas Gas adopted for 2023 by Tech3, Acosta was nonetheless adamant that his immediate goals involve remaining a part of the KTM family in one way or another.
“I don’t know the situation to be honest,” he admitted to MotoGP.com last week. “I believe in KTM, I believe that they gave me a bike when I was without a bike, and I believe in them to take the decision for MotoGP. If I cannot dress in orange, maybe I can in red, don’t worry!
“I believe in KTM, and if they decide to give me another year in Moto2 I don’t want to say nothing. I believe that they have to really plan what is the best for my career and also what is the best for my move to MotoGP.
“I’ve said since the first day that my heart is in orange. Finally they gave me a family, everything I need to train, to fight for championships. When I was in Moto3, they did things between one race and another because I needed them to be faster. This I am pretty grateful to them for, and why not go to MotoGP with KTM?”
In theory, that should create some breathing room for Fernandez, given the way in which Gardner (ironically a close friend of Acosta’s) was treated in the past by KTM. But, likely with that knowledge in the back of his mind, he told The Race at this weekend’s French Grand Prix that there’s no such thing as a sure thing until the contract is signed.
“Here you always have pressure,” Fernandez admitted, “and I expect anything and everything. I’m focusing on my job, trying to perform as always, but as you know anything is always possible here in this world.
“I’ll try to do my job, to perform, not just for them but also for me because I want to be at the front and to win. Let’s just keep working and let’s see.”
On the other side of that garage, there’s also been some clarification about what the future holds, after speculation of late that the currently injured Pol Espargaro, Fernandez’s Tech3 Gas Gas team-mate, might not even return to MotoGP following the severe injuries that he suffered at the opening round of the season in Portugal was definitively quashed.
Espargaro has used his first media appearance since the crash, on Spanish TV, to underline that he will very much be back in action as soon as possible, despite the severity of the injuries he sustained at Portimao.
“I thought about quitting, these are thoughts I’ve had… I’ve had a lot of time to think. Seeing how those around me also suffer, seeing my wife suffer is what made me think about it,” said Espargaro to DAZN.
“But she has told me many times that she met me riding, it’s what makes me happy and it makes her happy to see me happy.”
