Why KTM thinks it “hasn’t done enough yet” to retain Acosta in MotoGP

KTM boss Pit Beirer has admitted the manufacturer has not yet “done enough” to convince Pedro Acosta to stay beyond 2026, but is confident it can show significant progress on track this season.

Acosta was groomed by KTM through the junior ranks and has become a central figure in its MotoGP programme, but his long-term future remains uncertain ahead of the championship’s regulation overhaul in 2027.

The Spaniard is understood to be a prime target for rival marque Ducati, which is believed to be pursuing the youngster to replace the underperforming Francesco Bagnaia at its factory team. Such a move would create a superteam at Ducati alongside Marc Marquez, but would deprive KTM of the rider who scored the bulk of its points in both teams and manufacturers’ standings last year.

Beirer acknowledged that KTM’s recent performance has not fully met Acosta’s expectations, but is keen to show its riders what it can achieve after an intensive development push in the winter.

Asked whether KTM had done enough to secure Acosta’s future, Beirer said: “We haven’t done enough yet because we need to prove first. 

“The end of the year gave him confidence, but he made no secret that he still expects another step on the bike and that we are in a position to offer him a contract for the future. 

“We made a very clear plan about how we’re going to face the beginning of the season and how we’re going to especially face the Sepang test. I’m pretty sure that the Sepang test will be quite important for us to show not just Pedro, but all our riders what we could deliver over the winter.

“I’m confident we will deliver, we will have a good Sepang test. Then, out of that atmosphere, we want to really talk to our riders about the future. I don’t want to talk to them right now when they all expect us a step. Of course, we promise a step, we work really, really hard. 

“We did the homework, we need to get some good lap times in Sepang. The feeling for the rider is important. It’s not just the lap time; it’s like how they jump on the bike. There are some problems we wanted to fix. They are solved and that’s why I feel we have a chance to talk to Pedro about the future.”

After a promising rookie campaign in 2024 with Tech3 that marked him out as a future star, Acosta stepped up to KTM’s factory squad last year alongside Brad Binder.

However, the financial issues affecting KTM’s business at that time contributed to a difficult start to its 2025 MotoGP campaign, consigning Acosta to the midfield in the first half of the year.

It wasn’t until the Austrian Grand Prix in August that KTM could introduce a major upgrade that would allow Acosta to return to podium contention and showcase his capabilities on the RC16.

Beirer admitted the early struggles were particularly difficult for a rider with Acosta’s ambitions, with it now being widely known that he sought a way out of his KTM contract for 2026.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: KTM Images

“I think it was no secret that for Pedro everything other than winning was lost. Then he tried too hard to win and not accept that we were not in the position,” Bierer said.

“So, this took really weeks to regroup KTM out of not having all the parts we wanted to start the season, we got them later. 

“Basically, for us, it was a restart after summer break because this was all the time we needed to regroup mentally, some parts and the financial situation, then seeing how the team really stuck together and started to do results and climb on the podium quite regularly to the end of the season.”

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– The Autosport.com Team