Brno nightmare for Pedro Acosta, more technical problems: KTM must give him answers

A weekend to forget for the two-time world champion, with a double DNF in both races: inside KTM there’s a need to figure some things out to bounce back.

In the Czech Republic, the KTM RC16 wasn’t at the level of the Ducati Desmosedici GP26 and the Aprilia RS-GP26, and Pedro Acosta still wanted to score as many points as possible, but he ended up finishing the Grand Prix with 0. It wasn’t his fault: both in the sprint race and the main race he had to deal with technical issues for which he wasn’t responsible.

On Saturday, the rear ride-height device got stuck from the first lap and, in trying to free it, he crashed at Turn 11. At that moment he was in sixth place. On Sunday, something different happened: an engine problem forced him to retire at the start of the final lap, just as he was about to bring home fifth place. The engine cut out, something that had already happened on Friday. It’s not the first MotoGP weekend in which KTM has had reliability problems. The team needs to thoroughly analyze the situation and make sure these things don’t happen again, also because the two-time world champion lost points that would have allowed him to be closer to the leader of the standings, Marco Bezzecchi, now +48.

Acosta analyzed his race in the Czech Republic, confirming that his potential was to finish in fifth place, since he didn’t have what it took to fight for a better result: "The same thing that happened on Friday happened again. If the engine stops — reports Motosan — it’s something that doesn’t depend on me. I needed to make a good start and put in good laps at the beginning: I did that, then the front tire pressure dropped, so I let Diggia through, even though it’s true he had a better pace than mine. I spent many laps behind Mir, the pressure went up, it was within the required limits and, since I had a better pace, it was just a matter of overtaking and making a small effort to be fairly sure I could finish in the top five. Too bad the race lasted one lap too long."

Obviously, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider is disappointed with how his GP at Brno ended, but he knows it wasn’t his fault and expects that in Mattighofen they’ll be able to understand why the RC16 is encountering such frequent reliability issues: "There’s no answer. In the end, now they have to send everything to Austria and figure out what’s happening, because it’s not the first time this has occurred. These are things that don’t depend on me, I can’t control them. It’s incredible that we were among the top five on a weekend that seemed difficult. I’m less worried about Assen; they know what they have to do to prevent it from happening again. I’ll try to give 100% with what they give me, they can’t ask much more of me ."

Pedro demands answers from KTM. He’s giving everything to achieve good results with an RC16 that isn’t on par with the Aprilia and Ducati and was fourth in the overall standings before the double DNF in the Czech Republic. Now he’s slipped to sixth, overtaken by Marc Marquez and Ai Ogura. He needs better support to avoid throwing away more points. Even though he has always said he doesn’t feel like he’s in the running for the world title, without the technical issues in 2026 he would be considerably closer to Bezzecchi. Between Barcelona and Brno, more than 20 points have flown away.