Pedro Acosta’s feet on the ground: “I see the fishermen, real life”

Pedro Acosta insists there is no danger of getting carried away by the meteoric start to his MotoGP career.

A Moto3 and Moto2 world champion in the space of just three seasons, Acosta set the fastest lap in his first-ever MotoGP race in Qatar.

The next two events, at Portimao and COTA, have seen Acosta finish on the podium in third and second places, as the top KTM rider.

But speaking ahead of his highly anticipated first home Spanish MotoGP at Jerez this weekend, the son of a fisherman, whose shark logo is inspired by his father’s boat, says real life is never far away.

“In the end, I go back home every week and I see the fishermen… I see how real life is, and how people are working hard like that. This keeps my feet on the ground,” said the 19-year-old.

Be that as it may, Acosta’s GASGAS/KTM management have unsurprisingly heaped praise on the youngster's performances, with team boss Herve Poncharal saying he has ‘something magic’.

“Now Herve is happy! We need to wait until he starts to be angry!” Joked Acosta, who also led a MotoGP race for the first time at COTA. “No, but anyway, we are not making any difference from the other KTM guys.

“I mean Jack and Brad, you cannot imagine how much experience they have on the bike. Also Jack comes from another manufacturer. I'm just learning from them. I’m watching everyday what they are doing and trying to take the best things from everywhere.

“It's true that now we are in a sweet moment, but it's so easy to go well [one day] and go bad [the next]. For this, we need to keep our feet on the ground and don't think too much about these things.”

Ducati’s reigning double world champion Francesco Bagnaia, sitting alongside Acosta on Thursday, was asked what he sees the #31 doing differently on the bike.

“[He’s] bringing a new way to enter in the corners. More entry speed,” Bagnaia explained. “He’s making the difference in that point because at least in the last part of braking, he can turn the bike the same [as the others].

“So where it looks that he’s making the difference is more in the entrance of the corners, not just on the straight part. But enter with more speed and then he's riding without caring about the tyres and in this moment it’s giving him a good advantage. Because he's doing well, not because it’s luck.”

One of Acosta’s attributes in Moto3 was the ability to slide the front wheel under braking, can he do the same on the RC16?

“Well many things are different from those days. The tyres are different, much wider. Also, the bike is completely different. But the [DNA] is there, in the end it’s a Pierer Mobility bike painted in red. In the end, they know how to make bikes and how to go fast,” Acosta said.

“It’s true that also more or less I'm riding like in the [Moto3] days, with this sliding in the braking and going inside quite early. For this we are quite competitive in the braking.

“It's also true that we are trying to improve the exits. Because at the moment, for me it’s the worst point of my riding style, because I'm not really able to be close to the rider in front and take their slipstream. But we are working on this.”

And what of this weekend, where Brad Binder, Jack Miller and Dani Pedrosa were all fighting at the front for KTM last season?

“It's true that last year Brad and Jack were quite fast. Also Dani, with the wild card and [the test team] have been making some tests here with Pol also to improve our bike,” Acosta said.

“But in the end we have many question marks. America was a good weekend for us overall, but we don't really know how I'm going to ride here in Jerez.

“But anyway, let's try to work in the best way we can. We need to be calm with our feet on the ground and try not to think about any [expectations].”

Opening practice for the Spanish MotoGP takes place on Friday morning.