Pedro Acosta, the current Moto2 world champion, acknowledges that he has much to learn in order to achieve competitiveness in MotoGP.
Similar to his teammate Augusto Fernandez in the previous season, Acosta stands as the sole MotoGP rookie in 2024. Considerable expectations are placed on him owing to his evident talent and success since entering the grand prix paddock in 2021.
Having secured the Moto3 championship as a rookie and clinching the intermediate title in only his second season, Acosta will face heightened scrutiny in 2024. Expectations for a rookie haven’t been as elevated since Marc Marquez joined Repsol Honda in 2013.
Acosta is determined not to burden himself with additional pressure:
“There’s no expectation. In the end, if you arrive with expectation then you have pressure and can make mistakes easily.
“If you don’t learn you don’t improve and if you don’t improve then you go home. It’s true that this change is a young kid growing up to be a man. I have a lot of things to learn to be competitive.”
Despite still being a teenager, Acosta has achieved the kind of success that many riders much older than him have yet to experience.
Discussing his ascent to MotoGP, Acosta believes that he has become calmer as his experience has expanded.
Acosta added : “It was a feeling that was quite familiar to me because it’s something that doesn’t happen everyday but it’s something that happened to me twice in three years. “I was much more calm fighting for the championship than in 2021 when I was a kid. I didn’t really realise what was happening and I enjoyed it more than in 2021.”