"Pissed off" Acosta chasing answers after Thai MotoGP crash

Tyre unloading and high degradation are a cause of worry for Pedro Acosta after the MotoGP season opener in Thailand

Pedro Acosta was visibly angry after a frustrating outing in the Thailand Grand Prix, saying he and KTM need to understand why his bike suffered with tyre unloading during the race.

Acosta made those comments after he crashed at Turn 1 on the start of the fourth lap, losing a likely top 10 finish at Buriram. He was able to remount on the RC16 and complete the race, but he wound up in 19th place, only ahead of Aprilia stand-in Lorenzo Savadori in the list of classified finishers.

The 20-year-old explained that the rear of his bike suddenly unloaded while he was following the other factory Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi, causing him to lose the front and hit the deck.

Loading and unloading refer to the physical forces acting on the tyre during cornering, braking and acceleration.

The Spaniard said he is seeking answers as to why the 2025-spec KTM is more prone to rear unloading issues than its predecessor, as the only way around the problem is to brake more gently before corner entry.

"I'm pissed off, for sure. There are a lot of things that we don't understand that escape us," he said. “We need to understand because this year it looks like it's much easier to unload the rear.

“And then I unloaded the rear behind Bezzecchi, I was getting wide and sliding too much and then I lost the front. [It was] quite [a] normal crash but we need to understand where this unloading is coming from.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Crash

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“When you unload the rear, suddenly you slide and it comes back with the front.

“It’s a combination of things. We need to understand why one thing is working, why another one not, to understand these things.

“The only way to not unload the rear is to brake softer, but it doesn’t really work for the lap times for me.”

KTM suffered from tyre longevity issues during testing at Buriram and the problem seemingly carried over to the race weekend, with the Austrian marque finishing no higher than eighth with its quartet of bikes run between the factory squad and the Tech3 satellite team.