Enea Bastianini shares the ‘interesting’ thing he’s noticed after studying Pedro Acosta’s KTM data

Add as preferred source on Google

Enea Bastianini has endured a difficult start to life at Tech3 after joining from Ducati for the 2025 season.

The satellite KTM team come into this season with high hopes. Pedro Acosta scored five podiums for the team in 2024 in what was an incredible rookie season.

With the Spaniard moving to the factory team alongside Brad Binder, Tech3 sought to bolster their rider pairing. With Augusto Fernandez dropping off the grid, the team have snapped up Bastianini and Maverick Vinales from Ducati and Aprilia respectively.

KTM have looked to bring Tech3 closer to the factory operation, hence why they are running almost identical liveries in 2025. Bastianini and Vinales have been promised equal treatment and will be provided upgrades if they can outperform Acosta and Binder.

However, it has been a challenging start to the 2025 campaign for Tech3. Bastianini is struggling with corner entry as he adapts to the RC16, while Vinales has reported braking problems.

The former was 16th after the first day of testing in Buriram, 1.3 seconds off the benchmark time set by Marc Marquez. Ducati is likely not KTM’s fight this season, but Bastianini is desperate to improve his fortunes heading into the Grand Prix of Thailand.

Enea Bastianini has found a ‘little something’ from the KTM bike after adopting Pedro Acosta’s set-up

The 27-year-old has tried to treat the KTM like the Ducati and adopt his riding style to the RC16. This has proved challenging as Bastianini’s struggles in pre-season have been clear to see.

Bastianini has been studying Acosta’s data to learn from the Spaniard. The 20-year-old has been consistently the top KTM rider in testing and knows how to extract the maximum from the RC16.

Through his findings, the Italian has seen a ‘little something’ from the bike after he adopted Acosta’s set-up.

“Acosta is interesting because he can take advantage of this bike one hundred percent”, said Bastianini to GPOne.

READ MORE: Everything to know about KTM Tech3 including the MotoGP team’s riders

“You can see that he’s already been riding it for a year and that he has only ridden this bike because, either way, he manages to make a difference from the mid corner to exiting.

“That’s the area where I try to do the distance, while he stop the bike and tries to get it back up.

“We started with completely different set-ups, because I was trying to continue on my way, it wasn’t leading to anything.

“So, I started to do a little bit like him and a little something is coming out of it.”

Pedro Acosta’s KTM bike may be a ‘rider safety issue’ after tyre woes in Buriram

Team leader Nicolas Goyon says Tech3 cannot fight for ‘top positions’ in 2025. This leaves Acosta and Binder to extract the best for KTM.

But the factory team are experiencing issues of their own. Acosta and Binder suffered ‘horrific’ tyre issues in Buriram, with the rear tyre looking ‘absolutely chewed’ when the bike returned to the pits.

KTM’s media blackout means the reason for the issue may not be found. Acosta and Binder will not face the press amid the company’s financial crisis, with the deadline for their restructuring plan to be approved by creditors being February 25.

Journalist Simon Patterson says Acosta’s bike could be a ‘rider safety issue’ due to the rear tyre’s wear. KTM must act fast to resolve the issue – their financial woes will not help matters.