Pedro Acosta Crew Chief: ‘Other Riders Can’t Do This on the KTM’
Pedro Acosta's crew chief Paul Trevathan reveals what sets the MotoGP star apart. "He finds the missing 10% by himself."
The ongoing financial uncertainty within KTM appears to have slowed progress on the RC16, leaving both Acosta and the Austrian brand struggling to meet their high 2025 ambitions.
What was supposed to be a season of steady improvement is instead turning into a frustrating battle with inconsistency and massive tyre degredation.
After finishing 12th in the sprint race in Thailand before crashing in the main race, Acosta managed a 10th-place finish in the short race at Termas de Rio Hondo and improved to eighth on Sunday.
Battling Joan Mir, Ai Ogura, and Fabio Di Giannantonio in the early stages of the race, a lack of rear grip and recurring forearm pain ultimately held the Spaniard back.
Still, Acosta finished just 1.2 seconds behind KTM teammate Binder, and later noted: “Brad and I struggled with the same issue, that much is clear.”
“But for me, the bigger problem was the front tire pressure being too high. When [Joan] Mir passed me, you might have seen me trying some unusual things on the straight just to stay close.”
How close do you want it? @37_pedroacosta & @AiOgura79: YES 💥#ArgentinaGP 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/P5J7fcaxJ6
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 16, 2025
“After that, I found my rhythm again. I caught Mir, got past him, and was right with Binder, Di Giannantonio, Ogura, and the rest of the group.”
That’s when arm pump hit the Spaniard, a problem he only ever had to face once on a MotoGP bike. “I could keep going, but in Turns 3 and 4, I was struggling to change direction properly,” he admitted.
“We know the root cause of the problem. The only other time I’ve experienced this was in my first MotoGP race. I’ve been bringing it up for a year – something needs to change.”
However, Acosta remains adamant that surgery is not an option: “I’ve never had an operation before, and I don’t plan on starting now.”
“[The race] was an improvement over the sprint, at least. By the end, the bike was working at a basic level, but we still need to understand why its behavior varies so much from one session to another.”
“None of us are satisfied – neither Brad Binder, who has won world titles and MotoGP races, nor Maverick Viñales, a former Moto3 champion who’s battled at the front in MotoGP, nor Enea Bastianini,” he pointed out.
