Marco Bezzecchi
Dani Pedrosa has issued a verdict on the future of Pedro Acosta in MotoGP, in what can only be seen as a clear warning to Marc Marquez ahead of the two Spaniards’ duel at the factory Ducati team next year.
Out of every one of the riders who has shared a race track with Marc Marquez over the course of his highly successful career in the premier class, no one knows the seven-time world champion quite as well as Dani Pedrosa.
The 31-time Grand Prix winner spent six seasons in the box adjacent to Marquez at the factory Honda outfit, and had a front row seat to the world-beating exploits of his more junior teammate until his retirement at the end of the 2018 campaign.
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More recently, his role as a test and development rider for KTM allows him to nurture the Austrian constructor’s next generation of bikes as well as talent.
With Pedro Acosta now on the horizon of a switch to Ducati machinery next year, Pedrosa is the perfect ally for the young Spaniard to have in his corner as he attempts to go toe-to-toe with one of the all-time greats.
- READ MORE: Pedro Acosta tipped to have same effect on Marc Marquez that Jorge Lorenzo had on Valentino Rossi
Dani Pedrosa warns that Pedro Acosta will be ‘entering his prime’ soon in MotoGP
During a recent interview with Diario AS, Pedrosa was asked about Acosta’s stature as one of the few riders on the MotoGP grid with superstar status.
After being put on the spot over his thoughts on whether the KTM star deserves to be called a ‘top rider’, Pedrosa replied, “Among the riders on the grid, given his age and the generation he’s racing in… I think he does. And we’ll see, because in the coming years he’ll be entering his prime.
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“He’s very young, he’s moving into a new category, as you mentioned earlier, and I think he’ll be able to develop much further there.
“After that, he’ll also have to compete with the generation coming up behind him, but I think he’ll be one of the riders who’ll always be at the front in the coming years.”
With Acosta’s move to Borgo Panigale now all but confirmed, his first real test will be regarding how close he can match Marquez’s prowess on equal machinery.
MotoGP legend Giacomo Agostini has shared his excitement for the duel between Acosta and Marquez that is set to take the premier class by storm next year, predicting a ‘good fight’ that will set Spain ‘on fire’.
- READ MORE: Pedro Acosta says being Marc Marquez’s teammate would be a ‘dream come true’ amid Ducati links
Pedro Acosta talks about his relationship with Dani Pedrosa at KTM
A joint interview between Acosta and Pedrosa for Pont Grup also recently landed, and the young Murcian fielded a question about his relationship with the MotoGP legend.
After being jokingly asked if Pedrosa bosses him around inside the KTM box, Acosta replied, “I think the good thing is that we have similar views on a lot of things – the bike, the people, all sorts of things – so it’s really easy to find a middle ground.
“I remember the first year I raced in MotoGP; they brought a chassis to Misano, which I hadn’t tested. And when the other riders didn’t like it, I asked, ‘OK, Dani, what’s the deal?’ He said, ‘Yes, race with that.’ So I asked KTM to bring it to me for Indonesia, I’ll race with that.”
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