KTM rider Pedro Acosta told the ‘only thing’ he must find to rival Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia

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Ducati riders Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez will head into the 2025 MotoGP season as the favourites to win the title after champion Jorge Martin joined Aprilia.

The Borgo Panigale squad are expected to run away at the front of the order once again this year. Ducati have dominated the premier class for the last three years and hammered home their position in 2024 with their bikes winning all but one Grand Prix and three Sprint Races.

Such was their advantage that Ducati also won the constructors’ title on 722 points ahead of KTM Factory Racing on 327. Ducati also sealed the teams’ title on 884 points over the 681 of Pramac, with whom Martin took the riders’ title as Ducati pilots also locked out the top four.

But winning the title was still not enough for Martin to join Bagnaia as Ducati took Marquez. Now, the two and six-time premier class champions are the favourites to win the title, while Martin faces two medical checks to debut for Aprilia in Thailand after a crash in pre-season.

Pedro Acosta only needs ‘patience’ to rival Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia

Yet Pol Espargaro thinks the ‘only thing’ Pedro Acosta needs to find in order to rival Bagnaia and Marquez is patience. The KTM test rider is convinced the Austrian outfit’s new recruit is otherwise the complete package and ready to fight all Ducati riders during the 2025 season.

Acosta greatly impressed Espargaro during his rookie MotoGP campaign with Tech3 in 2024. The 20-year-old came sixth in the riders’ championship and ended the term only two points behind his 2025 teammate Brad Binder to be the best KTM pilot, bagging 215 and 217 each.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Pedro Acosta from net worth to girlfriend

But Espargaro feels Acosta could not become the complete package without going through the ‘learning processes’ he has faced with the factory KTM team. Now, he goes into the new season with the pace and potentially the tools to take it to Marquez and Bagnaia on a track.

“He doesn’t lack anything,” Espargaro told Motorsport.com. “I think he has everything. He has the talent, the self-confidence, the character [and] the ambition of a champion.

“Pedro showed last year that, even though he often doesn’t have the necessary tools, he is the one who takes the step forward. Perhaps the only thing he didn’t have and that he was missing was patience, that maturity that only time is capable of giving you.

“He had to go through some learning processes that he couldn’t have gone through until this year. So, I think that right now Pedro is in a sweet moment, in which he has the speed [and] the tools, or at least he is starting to have them, to talk to Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and [the] other Ducati riders.”

Patience might have seen Pedro Acosta beat Pecco Bagnaia for his first MotoGP win in Japan

Acosta was quick out of the blocks as a rookie in 2024 with his debut podium coming in only his second race with P3 in the Grand Prix of Portugal. He would reach the rostrum five times for Tech3, a higher figure than the number of Grands Prix the Spaniard crashed out of (four).

READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number

Patience likely would not have prevented Acosta from crashing out of the French Grand Prix after dropping his bike trail braking between Aleix Espargaro and Fabio Di Giannantonio. He also fell during the Dutch TT while running in seventh place with no one else around Acosta.

A bit more patience might have helped in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, though, as Acosta dropped his bike while chasing Bagnaia for P3. A maiden win was even possibly on the cards at the Japanese Grand Prix before Acosta lost the front while chasing Pecco for P1 at Motegi.