One analyst called Pedro Acosta’s early ascent to fourth place in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix last weekend “unbelievable.” However, the reality was far from that.
After all, this is a rider who, in just his second Moto3 start, rode from pit lane to an incredible maiden grand prix triumph at the exact same Losail venue three years earlier. Naturally, this cleared the path for him to win the championship and advance straight to Moto2 in 2022 thanks to a lot of media conjecture that KTM would give him priority for MotoGP.
Since he first took to the track in 2021 as an official grand prix rider, Acosta’s star has been shining brightly. It’s also easy to overlook the fact that his brief stint with Ajo Motorsport was a last-minute arrangement following the collapse of his first agreement with Prustel GP.
Over the past year, Motorsport.com has spoken with a number of important members of the MotoGP paddock about Acosta and why the excitement surrounding him was warranted. Following the Qatar GP, all have been shown to be spot on.
Acosta started the sprint race on the Tech3-run KTM in eighth place and finished ninth in the grand prix. But those might not appear like particularly noteworthy figures when you consider another relevant comparison.
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Eleven years have passed since Marc Marquez made his MotoGP debut for Honda at the 2013 Qatar GP. The buzz was much the same, even if the years had changed. Before moving up to MotoGP in 2013 with the factory Honda squad, Marquez blazed a similar path through the junior classes on his route to the 125cc and Moto2 titles in 2010 and 2012. He also managed to overcome a career-threatening eye injury at the end of 2011.
Of course, the rest is Marquez’s history. After that night in Qatar, Marquez went on to win six MotoGP championships in seven years, solidifying his status as the greatest of this period.
Flashback to the weekend of April 4–7, 2013, when Marquez fulfilled everyone’s expectation. The 20-year-old was the fastest of all after three practice sessions, if only by 0.001 seconds. He finished third in the grand prix after losing to Valentino Rossi of Yamaha in the qualifying round, when he was 0.931s off the pace. More astonishingly, Marquez was only 3.2 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa, his Honda teammate, who many would argue is now the greatest MotoGP rider to have never won a championship.
Acosta’s 2024 weekend proceeded as follows: following the last practice, he was sixth overall, 0.264 seconds off the pace. He then qualified eighth, 0.341 seconds off the pace. Even if Marquez’s sprint form was impressive, it’s not comparable because it wasn’t a format that existed in his rookie season.
On lap five of the grand race, Acosta used an assault on Marquez’s inside into Turn 10 to pass his Gresini Ducati. Acosta moved up to fourth and briefly into the chase for the podium as a result, but in the end, he finished ninth, 11.595 seconds behind the winner.
Although Acosta was familiar with Losail’s MotoGP equipment prior to the grand prix, what the young Spaniard displayed was truly exceptional, particularly considering the current MotoGP competitive environment.
According to Acosta, “the fight with Marc lasted as long as it had to.” It’s similar to losing your virginity in that everything seems perfect at first but turns out to be a catastrophe. The tale was too short to continue. What I enjoyed most was passing people by, having a beat, and just being there.
His tires blowing off as he pushed through the field was the main cause of the fade. However, Acosta’s fall down the order was partly influenced by the unnatural placement of KTM’s ride height device lever, which weakened his arms.
The way Acosta handled his first appearance in the championship showed how composed a rider he is, despite the nearly overwhelming attention he had at the beginning of his grand prix career. In order to keep improving, he stated that he “must be happy to make these mistakes” that he made in the Qatar Grand Prix. In an interview with Motorsport.com in November of last year, he hinted at his MotoGP debut.
At that point, he stated, “We have a lot to learn.” “All right, let’s say, for instance, that I attend the IRTA [test] in Qatar. There, we’ll have excellent electronics, a beautiful environment, and the opportunity to compete for the podium. However, perhaps in the upcoming race, everything will be different. I’ll attempt to approach this race by race, attempting to absorb as much information as I can, applying what I learn from one to the next, and making use of this experience since it will enable me to mature.
For Acosta, the Portuguese Grand Prix will undoubtedly be a bit of a reset. But comparing his Qatar start to Marquez’s eleven years prior says there won’t be a significant reality check.
Since 2013, the racing scene has evolved significantly from the days when riding a factory Honda or Yamaha was a surefire way to win. In 2013, Pedrosa, Rossi, Marquez, and Jorge Lorenzo were the race winners. The first non-Japanese bike in that year’s Qatar Grand Prix was Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati, which finished eighth, 24.355 seconds behind the lead.
To put that in a current context, the top 17 riders in the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend were covered in 24.355 seconds. The difference of 12.5 seconds that separated Tech3 teammate Augusto Fernandez and Acosta, the second-best KTM in the grand prix in 2024, in ninth place in 2013 was the necessary distance to enter the top five.
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This is not to disparage Marquez, who approached his first season in a very similar manner to Acosta. It will be extremely challenging to top his rookie campaign achievement of winning his first grand prix in round two in Austin and going on to become the youngest world champion ever to round out the campaign.
It would be unjust to expect Acosta to accomplish this in year one, as it is quite implausible. Although the RC16 is a good package, given the bike’s inconsistent performance over the previous several years, one of the major questions after the season start is how consistently it will perform in comparison to the all-conquering Ducati.
However, after Qatar, the possibility of breaking one Marquez record in 2024 did seem a little more likely. If Acosta places first on the podium prior to the German Grand Prix in July, he will become the youngest-ever winner of a premier class grand prix. In 2013, Marquez set a record in Austin at the age of just twenty-one years and sixty-three days.
After his first weekend, Acosta did bring a record back with him. The fastest lap of the Qatar Grand Prix was recorded on the second lap in 1m52.657s. At 19 years and 290 days, he became the youngest rider in history to complete the fastest lap in a premier class grand prix, breaking the record held by 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo, who set it on his 2019 Qatar GP debut at the age of 19 years and 324 days.
Even though it is important to take into account that Acosta was aware of the Losail circuit using MotoGP equipment prior to the grand prix, what the young Spaniard showed was truly remarkable, particularly when taking into account the current competitive scenario in MotoGP.
Given that history tends to repeat itself, it is also important to take into consideration the similarities it has drawn to Marquez’s debut all those years ago.
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