Marco Bezzecchi
Pedro Acosta may have to wait another six months before riding a Ducati prototype in light of his rumoured move to the Italian constructor for 2027, but that hasn’t stopped him from bringing shades of the reigning world champions to KTM.
Since his career in Grand Prix motorcycle racing began in 2021, Pedro Acosta has only known Ducati domination. The Bologna Bullets have won every constructors’ championship ever since, and have remained the team to beat for the entirety of the current decade.
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As such, the rest of the grid has been searching for an opportunity to usurp the Borgo Panigale-based outfit at the top of the food chain, with Aprilia looking like they could potentially do that with their well-rounded RS-GP26 this year.
Noale’s emergence as championship contenders comes after years of an upward trajectory, in which team chief Massimo Rivola has assembled a team of some of the brightest minds in the two-wheeled landscape to aid his endeavours.
KTM, on the other hand, have apparently skipped the innovation part of development and gone straight to seeing what works on other brands of bike before adapting it to suit their own RC16, according to Acosta.
Pedro Acosta reveals how he pushed KTM to ‘copy’ Ducati’s front fairing
In an appearance on the Gypsy Tales podcast, Acosta was asked for his thoughts on the new MotoGP regulations that are set to come into effect in 2027. The amended ruleset features a swathe of changes, including a cutback on the aerodynamic elements of each bike.
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Living up to his reputation as an ‘old school’ style racer, Acosta is all for the changes. Asked if he is looking forward to the stripping back of aerodynamics, he replied, “Yeah, I mean, you can’t imagine how much aero can change a bike, it’s black and white.
“Let’s say you have the bike, and you can do, I don’t know, a 39.7. You change the aero, and you’re one second faster just like that. For this, I say that there is something the other brands understand that we don’t because it’s crazy how much of an advantage they had.
“If you look at our front fairing, it’s the Ducati one. I arrived at a moment where we just had to copy it. If you try, don’t work, try, don’t work, try, don’t work, then at one moment, even the riders ask to copy things on the bikes.
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“We want to perform, and our brand has all the time in the world, but the riders don’t have all the time. The career of a rider is really short. For this, we want to perform now, not tomorrow, now.”
Acosta is widely expected to depart from KTM in favour of Ducati for the premier class’s new era, in a move that doesn’t necessarily guarantee him success due to the sizable overhaul.
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