11-podium MotoGP team ‘in the lead’ to sign Pedro Acosta for 2026 despite £13m-a-year Honda offer

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Pedro Acosta only joined KTM Factory Racing for the 2025 MotoGP season, yet their problems may see him change teams as quickly as 2026 with Honda very interested.

Rival outfits are keen to take advantage of the issues that KTM are enduring so far this term, both on the track and financially. KTM entered self-administration at the end of 2024 due to debts their parent company, the Pierer Mobility group, had amassed with billions still owed.

A restructuring plan ensured KTM continued to operate in 2025, but there remains a chance the Austrian crew may yet have to withdraw from MotoGP in the future. Add in their issues on the track, and Acosta is considering ending his journey with KTM stretching back to 2020.

Acosta has been a part of the KTM family since his Red Bull Rookies Cup days, having ridden for the Ajo crew in Moto3 and Moto2 before joining Tech3 to get his MotoGP debut in 2024. Yet his first four rounds with the works KTM outfit this year have started to sound the alarm.

VR46 lead Honda to sign Pedro Acosta with the KTM rider possibly on the market for 2026

KTM have only scored 46 points through the first four rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season to trail Ducati by 174 points already. Acosta has earned 24 of KTM’s points to also only sit 11th in the riders’ standings with his personal-best Grand Prix result of P8 in Argentina and Qatar.

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

Now, Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Acosta will give KTM until the Jerez in-season test to show him they can improve the RC16. But if the upgrades they give him at the test after the Grand Prix of Spain underwhelm Acosta, he will look to leave KTM after the 2025 campaign.

Acosta has already told KTM that his contract for 2026 is just ‘a piece of paper’, with Honda and VR46 Racing Team targeting his signature. Honda have even offered Acosta a two-year contract worth €30m (£13m-a-season) to leave KTM to give them a champion-calibre rider.

But it is VR46 ‘in the lead’ to sign Acosta for the 2026 MotoGP season and not Honda. VR46 leading the race to sign the 20-year-old is even one of the reasons why Honda are targeting World Superbikes champion Toprak Razgatlioglu in a deal for him to ride in MotoGP in 2027.

Pedro Acosta could replace Franco Morbidelli at VR46 or Luca Marini at Honda

Acosta can leave KTM at the end of the 2025 MotoGP season and make his contract for next year nothing more than ‘a piece of paper’ as his deal includes a performance-related release clause. Rival MotoGP teams can even buy Acosta out of his KTM contract for €5m (£4.5m).

It would be a very expensive operation for Honda or VR46 to trigger Acosta’s buy-out clause and also offer him the sort of money the KTM rider would demand. Yet VR46 have a cheque in hand to sign Acosta as team owner Valentino Rossi views him as the ‘anti-Marc Marquez’.

Rossi and VR46 will face firm competition from Honda to land the Spaniard, though. Both of the teams have a seat free for next year with Franco Morbidelli and Luca Marini each due to respectively be free agents, though Honda want to demote Marini to LCR if they sign Acosta.

What may also work in VR46’s favour for 2026 is that Rossi’s crew can offer Acosta a Ducati. Marco Bezzecchi won three Grands Prix with a satellite Ducati at VR46 in 2023 and the team have secured 11 Grands Prix podiums altogether yet since their premier class debut in 2022.