“Unbelievable” was how one commentator described Pedro Acosta’s early rise up to fourth in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix last weekend. But, in truth, it was anything but.
After all, this is a rider who at the very same Losail venue three years prior went from pitlane to a stunning maiden grand prix victory in just his second Moto3 start. That, of course, paved the way for his charge to the title and an immediate step up to Moto2 in 2022 – by way of more than enough media speculation that he would be fast-tracked to MotoGP by KTM instead.
Acosta’s star has shone brightly from the moment he hit the track as an official grand prix rider back in 2021. And it’s easy to forget that his run out with Ajo Motorsport was a last-minute deal after his original contract with Prustel GP fell through.
Autosport has spoken to numerous key figures in the MotoGP paddock over the past year about Acosta and why the hype around him was justified. All have been proven absolutely bang on the money after the Qatar GP.
Qualifying eighth on the Tech3-run KTM, Acosta finished there in the sprint and then was a solid ninth in the grand prix. However, those might not seem like standout numbers, especially when you make another pertinent comparison.
MORE: Why the impact of Acosta's MotoGP debut is bigger than his results
Acosta’s MotoGP debut came 11 years after Marc Marquez made his at the 2013 Qatar GP for Honda. The years may be different, but the hype was very much the same. Marquez blazed a similar trail through the junior categories on his way to 125cc and Moto2 crowns in 2010 and 2012 – brushing off a career-threatening eye injury at the end of 2011 – before stepping up to MotoGP in 2013 with the factory Honda squad.
The rest, of course, is history with Marquez. From that evening in Qatar, Marquez went on to win six MotoGP titles in seven years and firmly cemented himself as this era’s great.
Rewind to the weekend of 4-7 April 2013 and Marquez did what everyone expected. After three practice sessions, the 20-year-old was fastest of all on the combined times, albeit by just 0.001s. He qualified sixth, 0.931s off the pace, before going on to finish third in the grand prix after losing out in a battle with Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi. Perhaps more impressively, Marquez was 3.2s up the road from Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa – someone few would argue now holds the unfortunate honour of being the best MotoGP rider never to win a title.
Acosta’s weekend in 2024 went as follows: he was sixth overall after final practice, 0.264s adrift, before qualifying eighth with a lap 0.341s off the pace. While his sprint form was noteworthy, it’s a format that didn’t exist in Marquez’s debut year and therefore isn’t worth comparing.
In the grand prix, Acosta overtook Marquez’s Gresini Ducati on lap five of 21 with a raid on his inside into Turn 10. This put Acosta into fourth and for a time into the podium hunt, before ultimately fading to 11.595s off the win in ninth.
While Acosta knew Losail on MotoGP machinery coming into the grand prix, what the young Spaniard demonstrated - especially in the context of the modern MotoGP competitive landscape - was nothing short of special
"The fight with Marc lasted as long as it had to,” Acosta said. “It's like when you lose your virginity: everything is very beautiful and ends up being a disaster. The story couldn't last long. Overtaking people, having rhythm and being there is what I liked the most.”
That fade was largely down to his tyres dropping off as he pushed his way through the field. But the awkward positioning of KTM’s ride height device lever also took a toll on the physical strength of Acosta’s arms, which also contributed to his tumble down the order.
Acosta’s response to his debut outing was a measure of the kind of level-headed rider the championship has on its hands, an outlook shaped and hardened by the almost overwhelming hype he received very early in his grand prix career. He said he has “to be happy to make these mistakes” that he did in the Qatar GP to continue adapting. Last November in conversation with Autosport, he almost foreshadowed his MotoGP debut.
“We have many things to learn,” he said then. “OK, maybe imagine for example that I go to the IRTA [test] in Qatar, we have a nice setting, we have nice electronics and we can fight for a podium [in the race]. But maybe everything is going to change in the next race. For this, I will try to go race by race, trying to learn as much as possible and put all the things that I learn in one race to the next one and using this experience, because it’s the thing that will help me to grow up.”
Indeed, the Portuguese GP will be something of a reset for Acosta. However, his Qatar debut when compared to Marquez’s 11 years ago suggests there won’t be a major reality check.
The competitive landscape has changed dramatically since 2013, when simply being on a factory Honda or Yamaha was a guarantee of victory. Every race in 2013 was won by one of either Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi, Marquez and Pedrosa. In that year’s Qatar GP, the first non-Japanese bike was the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso – 24.355s off the pace – in seventh.
To put that into a modern context: 24.355s covered the top 17 riders in last weekend’s Qatar GP. In 2013, the 12.5s gap that split Acosta (who was the second-best KTM in the grand prix in 2024) in ninth and Tech3 team-mate Augusto Fernandez was the threshold needed to break into the top five in 2013.
OPINION: How Qatar MotoGP debut proved Marquez's Ducati switch is already paying off
This takes nothing away from Marquez, whose approach to his debut season was very much in line with Acosta’s. And, of course, to go and win his first grand prix in round two at Austin before becoming the youngest ever world champion to cap off his rookie campaign is a feat that will be immensely difficult to match.
Acosta is very unlikely to achieve this in year one, and it would be unfair to expect as much. The RC16 is a good package, but its consistency over a full campaign relative to the all-conquering Ducati remains one of the biggest question marks following the season-opener given the bike’s up-and-down form over the past few years.
But the prospect of beating one Marquez record in 2024 did become just a little bit more plausible after Qatar. Acosta can become the youngest-ever premier class grand prix winner if he takes to the top step of the podium before July’s German GP. Marquez took the record in Austin in 2013 when he was just 20 years and 63 days old.
Coming away from his debut weekend, Acosta did take a record with him. A 1m52.657s on lap two of the Qatar GP stood as the fastest lap of the race. This made him the youngest rider ever to achieve a fastest lap in a premier class grand prix at 19 years and 290 days, taking a record that belonged to Fabio Quartararo from his 2019 Qatar GP debut when the 2021 world champion was 19 years and 324 days old.
While the caveat that Acosta knew the Losail circuit on MotoGP machinery coming into the grand prix must be considered, what the young Spaniard demonstrated - especially in the context of the modern MotoGP competitive landscape - was nothing short of special.
The fact it has drawn parallels with Marquez’s debut all those years ago is something that shouldn’t be ignored either, given history’s propensity to repeat itself…
