KTM rider Pedro Acosta shares what he’s told his crew after having the most MotoGP crashes in 2024

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Pedro Acosta won the 2024 Rookie of the Year Award in MotoGP. That’s a prestigious title, previously won by the likes of Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo, but he didn’t face any competition.

Acosta was the only rookie on the grid at the start of 2024, though he may well have won the prize anyway given his impressive results. The Spaniard finished sixth in the championship with 215 points.

Just 19 at the start of the season, he arrived amid plenty of hype. He’d won the Moto3 title in 2021, and followed it up with the Moto2 crown two years later.

Acosta was the first rider since Loris Capirossi to win a championship in his first year of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. He then became the youngest Moto2 champion since Dani Pedrosa in 2004.

This earned him a MotoGP contract with Tech3, the KTM satellite squad. After finishing just two points behind Brad Binder, he graduates to the factory outfit.

However, Acosta’s first season has been marked by a string of accidents. Perhaps unsurprisingly given his inexperience, he crashed more than any other rider in 2024.

Pedro Acosta has vowed seize any opportunities despite accident-ridden MotoGP campaign

During an interview with Australian outlet Speedcafe, Acosta was asked to explain why he’d come off the bike so often. He admitted that many of his mishaps had been a learning experience.

For instance, he was on course for P7 at the Dutch Grand Prix before crashing on the last lap – a mistake he attributes to poor tyre management. He was more critical of his second crash in a 10-minute span at the Austrian GP, putting it down to ‘stupidity’.

But he stands by his aggressive approach. Acosta has repeatedly told his crew that, while he’ll of course try to stay upright, he won’t hesitate to take risks if he sees an ‘opportunity’.

This may have been behind his offs in both the Sprint and main Grand Prix in Japan, where he’d qualified on pole. He felt he needed to ‘push like hell’ to secure a first win.

“Many times I crashed because, for any reason, I was missing experience,” he said. “In Assen, I crashed in the last lap because the tyre cooled down a bit.

“Then, there were other crashes without reason, like the second crash on Friday in Austria, or stupid crashes [that were] quite big. It’s true that many times in the races, we were crashing because to try to fight for a win, we need to push like hell.

“It was the only chance. I always say in the box, ‘I will not crash, but if I see the opportunity, I will go for it’. Many races, like Thailand in the Sprint race, we were quite competitive, but we need to push. Japan, we were competitive, but we need to push.

“There were many of these races where we crashed for that reason. Maybe it was between these crashes that it was not always easy.”

How Pedro Acosta compares to the last five Rookie of the Year winners

Given that Acosta didn’t have any rivals for the Rookie of the Year mantle, it’s worth looking back at some previous winners to offer a frame of reference. The number of races differs, but the championship position is instructive.

In the last six seasons, only Fabio Quartararo (fifth in 2019) has finished higher in the standings than Acosta. He didn’t manage to win a race, but he’s shown that it’s only a matter of time.

One concern heading into the season, however, is the uncertainty around his team. Senior KTM figures insist they’re under no immediate threat, but there’s bound to be some anxiety in their garage.