Acosta: Beating Marquez early win record is impossible on MotoGP debut

KTM protege Acosta is considered by many as one of the most talented riders to come through the junior ranks in the last few years, leading to comparisons with Marquez and the success he enjoyed at the start of his MotoGP career.

Then factory Honda rider Marquez scored a victory in only his second race in the premier class back in 2013, becoming the youngest rider to clinch victory in the series at the age of 20 years and 63 days.

Acosta begins his rookie season at the age of 19 and will have until the seventh round of the season at the Sachsenring to potentially overhaul Marquez and steal one of his countryman’s most coveted records.

But Acosta doesn’t think it would be possible for him to win a race so soon in his career, feeling it is impossible to get instant success in MotoGP in 2024 due to the changes the series has witnessed in the last 11 years.

Asked if he expects to beat Marquez’s record, he said: “Well, I don't think so. It's a different MotoGP era. The bikes have changed a lot. I make a lot of laps [in testing] but I didn't practice inside a race behind a lot of bikes.

“It's going to be tough. The expectations of everybody are quite high. But expectation is for nothing.

“You can talk and you can think about this but it's a different MotoGP era, it's a different moment between our careers. It is not the moment to think about this.”

Marquez, however, hailed the speed Acosta had shown in grand prix years so far, and believes it is not out of the question that he could break some of his records in his maiden season in MotoGP.

He said: “He showed that he is a super talent, in Moto3, Moto2, and the first test in Sepang and also here in Qatar.

Pedro Acosta, Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“When you are super talented, you take a bike and you are fast [straight away]. Many rookies in the past got podiums and victories. So that means he can break my record, of course. And he will be part of MotoGP in the future years.”

Acosta was signed by KTM while he was still in the middle of his first year in Moto3 in 2021, leading to additional scrutiny about how he performs in MotoGP’s supporting classes.

The hype surrounding the Spanish sensation only rose when he won the Moto3 title at first attempt, leading to additional pressure on him on his step up to Moto2 in 2022.

He ended up spending two years in Moto2 with the KTM-supported Ajo outfit, winning the championship last year with a round to spare.

Acosta feels making the jump from Moto3 to the intermediary class in 2022 was harder than the challenge he faces now, simply because he was weighed down by the burden of expectation placed on him.

“From Moto3 to Moto2 it was a big change,” he said. “Also maybe the media was tough on me. It was not more the change in the category, it was more the change from the media.

“It was the position that I had. There were a lot of expectations, it was the first season that everyone expected Pedro was going to win the championship.

“The year before in Moto3 everyone expected that I was going to make the jump directly to MotoGP. Maybe the media for me was quite tough.

“Now I'm a little bit older, now I have more much more experience with these things. It was more the experience that I take than the change of the bike.”