Acosta wants to take over at Ducati: "Marquez is at the end of his career"

After winning the Moto3 and Moto2 titles with KTM and after three MotoGP seasons with the Austrian brand, Pedro Acosta is ready for a new adventure with Ducati. His departure has two main reasons: the desire to become world champion in the Top Class right away and a few too many mistakes made by the Mattighofen company.

The brand’s crisis in 2024 definitely influenced Pedro Acosta’s choices. KTM seemed on the brink of collapse, results were slow to arrive, and employees were sailing in rough waters. Fortunately, the situation is now more stable than last year, but the rider from Mazarrón had already decided to seek his fortune elsewhere.

The arrival of Gottfried Neumeister, KTM’s CEO, brought a positive breeze into the company, steering it toward safer harbors. The books are no longer in the red, sales have improved, and KTM is back in profit. But in MotoGP, they will no longer be able to rely on Acosta. Over the next two years, the reins of the premier class will be in the hands of Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Luca Marini (paired with Senna Agius) in the Tech3 satellite team.

KTM has supported Pedro Acosta since the Red Bull Rookies Cup days and continued to back him throughout his years in Moto3, Moto2, and finally in MotoGP. All the many efforts to keep him were in vain, and in the end they had to accept his desire to move to Ducati. The delays in the garage proved fatal in the 2025 season, when updates for the RC16 weren’t arriving and they couldn’t provide the bike they had promised him.

Already in the second half of last year it was clear that Pecco Bagnaia would leave Ducati, after a dreadful season with the Desmosedici. At that point, the young Spanish talent had a clear path to slot into the Borgo Panigale project. Even though he has never won a MotoGP race...

In fact, Ducati had been tracking Acosta for some time. Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team never hid its strong interest in the 2004-born rider, but Pedro wanted the factory team—even at the cost of sharing the garage with a “tricky” figure like Marc Marquez. "He is in the final phase of his career, while I’ve just started mine," he admitted in an interview with Motorsport.com. Having a competitive bike won’t be enough to hope everything goes perfectly. "I have no idea what I’ll find in that garage, but I don’t feel any pressure."

The rider will also have to face the usual adaptation process—not just to a different bike, but to the entire technical and managerial staff. "I will need time to adapt to a fully Italian workshop after spending six years at KTM. I’m facing a completely new chapter, so I’m not under pressure. Fortunately, I’ll be there for at least two years. So I’ll have time to catch up in the first year and see what happens in the second."

Ducati appreciated his talent despite the lack of major results. In almost three MotoGP seasons he notched thirteen podiums and two pole positions, but no wins. "I am very grateful to Ducati for allowing me to be part of their project, even though I haven’t yet won a MotoGP race," concluded Pedro Acosta. "Now a truly new chapter of my life is about to begin."

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