Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta conceded that he gave away potential victories in his rookie MotoGP campaign by “f***cking up everything”.
Although Acosta managed to live up to the hype upon his graduation to the premier class this year, his season on the KTM RC16 has also been plagued by a series of mistakes and crashes from leading positions.
Most notably, the Spanish rider qualified on pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, only to crash out of both the sprint and the main race while in contention for victory.
Recapping his first year in MotoGP ahead of this weekend’s season finale in Barcelona, Acosta said that victories were an achievable target for him in 2024, but his unforced errors meant that he wasn’t able to improve on the second-place finishes he achieved in Austin and Mandalika.
“We were fighting for many wins in the season, the problem then [was] I f**k up everything,” he said.
“At the end, the target to fight for wins was there. The possibility was realistic, it was not something of dreaming. It’s true that it’s hard to see how many opportunities I put in the bin, but it’s part of the job also.
“With all the mistakes I do over the season it’s unbelievable I’m still P5 [in the championship. It’s important enough for sure but it’s more important to finish the year in a good mood, with good results.”
Pedro Acosta, Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing
Photo by: Rob Gray / Polarity Photo
Despite admitting to making several mistakes over the year, Acosta is still the highest-placed non-Ducati rider in the championship in fifth place, having outscored even KTM stablemate Brad Binder on the factory-entered bike.
The 2023 Moto2 champion burst into the scene at the start of the year, scoring a podium in only his second grand prix appearance at Portimao before finishing second at the next round in Austin.
Although his results then began to tail off, he was able to bounce back after the summer break, adding three more rostrum finishes to his tally.
Acosta gave himself a 6/10 rating ahead of the Barcelona finale, having previously thought his performances at the mid-point of the year were only good enough for a score of 4.5.
Asked to grade his first year in MotoGP, he said: “Six [out of 10]. Six maybe because putting everything together, all the mistakes I made, all the points I put in the bin, all the stupid crashes that I was having, all the things I needed to try [six is fair].
“In the last couple of races, I was trying things and then in the race I was racing with other things, and I was not really having time to work on a weekend.
“I will put a 6 because I said in the beginning we will go like this [pointing upwards] and then we drop. And from my point of view maybe it was not like this in the last couple of races but not bad.”
