Pedro Acosta is a champion, KTM wants to keep him: "It's not a matter of money"

Acosta leads MotoGP pre-qualifying in Valencia, Beirer doesn’t want to lose him after 2026: back-and-forth inside KTM.

The first MotoGP victory hasn’t arrived yet, but the last Grand Prix on the 2025 calendar could be the right opportunity for Pedro Acosta. He’s topping the charts at the end of this Friday of practice in Valencia: besides being the fastest on a single lap, he also showed a solid race pace. It’s too early to get carried away, but the KTM rider seems to have good potential for the rest of the weekend.

Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP, the two-time world champion said he was fairly satisfied, but he’s keeping his feet on the ground and wants to keep working hard to improve: "We were fast, but we also struggled a lot with the soft front tire. I didn’t expect that, I thought I’d struggle more with the hard. Let’s see how we can improve on Saturday. Bezzecchi is fast with the Aprilia, the VR46 riders have arrived too, and there’s also Alex Marquez in P4. There’s a lot of competition this weekend."

Acosta continues to chase his first MotoGP win and maybe Valencia could be an opportunity—he’s hopeful: "We’re putting together some good races. It’s like a football match, you keep trying to score a goal. We’re trying, let’s see."

At KTM it’s Acosta who’s making the difference over everyone else, consistently putting the RC16 in strong positions. Pit Beirer, Motorsport Director of the Mattighofen marque, responded on the topic to Sky Sport MotoGP: "Other manufacturers have this problem too, with one rider fighting to win and the others struggling more. It’s not easy to figure out how to make a package that works for four riders. I think that when we have a bike ready to win, Pedro will stay with us. We don’t have much time to prove it, we’ve got a few months. Anyway, he’s not racing for money, he wants a winning bike."

Pedro heard Beirer’s words and replied with a blunt line: "I think the message got through."

The German manager knows how valuable Acosta is and hopes not to lose him after 2026, the year his contract expires: "He’s a fantastic rider, we’ve made a few steps, but he’s taken a bigger one than we have. Now we need to take another. We know where we are, we want to make him happy and keep him with us. But I’m not stupid, he has the chance to go wherever he wants right now, because he’s the number one rider in the paddock."

Pedro doesn’t feel he’s the best in MotoGP, even though he’s aware of his value: "That’s too optimistic,” he replied. “Anyway, in the last races we’re doing well and today too we had a good day. We’re building the consistency that was really missing at the start."

Finally, responding to a quip on the budget topic, Beirer shot back: "It’s not a budget issue, we need to make the bike a bit better, then everything will be fine."