Barcelona Chaos: Acosta Criticizes GP Management and Explains Why Riders Aren’t Uniting

The fastest of all in the Barcelona test, but the KTM rider is still thinking about what happened in Sunday’s race, which for him ended with a bitter retirement caused by Ogura.

The Catalan Grand Prix could have been the chance to claim his first win in a full-length MotoGP race, but on Sunday a bit of everything happened and he couldn’t fulfill his dream. After the first start he was leading the race when he had an electronic problem with his RC16 on the exit of Turn 9 and was then rear-ended on the straight by Alex Marquez, a nasty crash that inevitably brought out the red flag.

The third start was the one that allowed the race to be completed. The KTM rider was in fourth place when, on the last lap, he was taken out by Ai Ogura at the final corner. Even though the win was already gone, those would still have been 13 precious points for the standings on a really complicated day. The Japanese rider, penalized by 3 seconds and dropped to ninth, admitted he made a stupid mistake with that move and personally apologized to his colleague.

Monday in Barcelona featured a MotoGP test that lasted practically half a day, as rain arrived and interrupted the teams’ work. The fastest time was set by Acosta himself, who explained he hadn’t tried any particular updates to his RC16: "We tested engine mappings. We knew there wouldn’t be many new things — reportsMotosan — since it was the last test with the 1000cc bikes. No surprises, and we didn’t find any miracles. But it seems there are some things we can improve."

The two-time world champion also reiterated a point he already made on Sunday regarding the race: "A third start wasn’t necessary. The lap of the second race would have been enough and they could have awarded half points. Holding a third race was a kind of challenge to fate."

The first crash had involved not only Marquez and Pedro, but also Fabio Di Giannantonio, who was hit by a wheel from Alex’s Ducati and fell at Turn 10. Although he had pain in his left forearm, he restarted and ended up winning the race. At the second restart, there was also an incident involving Johann Zarco, Luca Marini, and Pecco Bagnaia. The Frenchman came off worst, finding his left leg trapped in the Ducati. Quite a few people felt that, after two bad crashes with two riders ending up in the hospital and two red flags, it wasn’t necessary to try racing again. But a different decision was made. The show must go on.

MotoGP lacks a riders’ association capable of making itself heard and influencing decisions. Could what happened over the Barcelona weekend be the opportunity to speed up the creation of a structure similar to F1’s GPDA? Acosta doesn’t seem to think so: "No, I don’t think so. Many riders always get together when something of this magnitude happens, or like what happened in Malaysia last year in Moto3. I don’t think we should go to the Safety Commission every week to report a new bump on the track. I don’t think what happened on Sunday could have been avoided with a Safety Commission meeting."

In recent days, Pecco Bagnaia had pointed out that there is little rider participation in Safety Commission meetings, but Pedro believes this isn’t a big problem. In general, he finds it difficult for riders to unite in certain critical situations: "It’s like in any other situation: one stops only if the other twenty do too. If someone is fighting for the Championship — which is not my case, but it is for Bezzecchi, for example — if he hadn’t wanted to race, it would have been enough for another title rival to show up on the grid for him to follow. You’re chasing a lifelong dream. If others start, you start too. All twenty of us would have to stop and say we’re not racing."

The future Ducati rider thinks there’s an important aspect to consider: "We need to understand that we riders, even if it doesn’t seem so, are rather egocentric. We’re always looking for the chance to slam our fist on the table." Riders’ egocentrism, then, seems to be an obstacle.

In 2023 there was a lot of talk about the possibility of creating a MotoGP riders’ association, and Sylvain Guintoli was mentioned as a possible “president.” Then the plan fell through, and now it’s hard to say if there will be another attempt.

In F1, the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) was founded way back in 1961. The first president was Stirling Moss. The drivers’ union is very important especially for addressing safety-related issues; unity can positively influence those who have to make certain decisions. We’ll see if things are destined to change in MotoGP.

The original interview in Spanish on Motosan.es