Meet Pedro Acosta, the young gun tearing it up in Moto3
Moto3 series leader Perdro Acosta opens up about his meteoric rise to become title favourite
‘My father is a fisherman, but loves bikes’
Pedro Acosta is 17 years old and the latest sensation to emerge from the world of MotoGP. With career stats and a win and podium rate that makes Valentino Rossi and even Marc Marquez look a bit average, Acosta has the MotoGP community mesmerized. Born in Mazarron, a town in the south-eastern Spanish Mediterranean, he has gone into the summer break as Moto3 leader with a 48-point lead with many tipping him as the World Champion in waiting.
From a very humble family, Acosta’s parents never had the means to pay for their son’s races. In fact, he was only able to buy his first set of leathers thanks to a collection amongst his friends; each one in put €50. It was his results that opened one door after another.
He said: “If it was based on my father’s pocket I would be at home fishing! The results I got allowed me to do my first year of FIM CEV without having to put money in, and in the Rookies Cup you only pay for travel.” Like Maverick Viñales, Acosta comes from a family of fishermen, and in his case the passion for riding also comes from his father’s side.
“My father is a fisherman, but he has always loved motorcycles. He had a motorcycle to ride on Sunday at the Cartagena circuit. My father gave me a Chinese motocross bike for my fourth birthday, which I used to ride on weekends to a soccer field behind my house. At that time I didn’t like asphalt motorcycles. In fact, to this day I still have the best time riding motocross. But a friend of my father’s opened a riding school and one day I went to watch. I saw that there were a lot of kids and I signed up.” Calm and open, Acosta is easier to talk with than other riders his age, who might answer questions in monosyllables or at most, just one solitary sentence.
Can you win the Moto 3 title at your first attempt?
“Yes, why not. I didn’t have that goal when I started the season, but whatever comes is welcome. As I tell my mechanics when they ask me questions about race strategy, ‘Look, I’m going to have fun for 45 minutes and see what happens after that.’ If we keep working the way we are doing and I keep having fun on the bike, maybe at the end of the year I can be fighting for it.”
Is it true that at the end of your first ever race you cried?
“Yes, I went to my first race two months after I started riding. We were sorted into two groups, A for fast riders and B for slow riders; I finished last of the slow riders. I saw myself there and I started to cry... At the end of that year I ended up being one of the fast ones.”
When asked about your favorite rider, you’ve always said Kevin Schwantz. Why is this given that when he was racing, you weren’t even born?
“Schwantz has always been my father’s idol. I’ve watched a lot of Schwantz races with him, over and over… Suzuka, the overtaking at Hockenheim… As a kid I always wore #34 on my bikes. In fact, when I was a kid in the championships they called me Kevin and those who knew me then still call me that. But at home and in the World Championship, I’m Pedro.”
What advice do your parents give you these days?
“I’m not at home much now, to tell you the truth. But the most important thing they keep telling me is to keep my feet on the ground.”
What’s so special about Aki Ajo’s team?
“It’s like if a good cyclist has the best bike or if you work with geniuses; in the end everything is easier. It has also been something fundamental that the team has allowed me to have Paco [my manager] with me, it has been very important. It’s a big relief because in the end, no matter how good a relationship you have with the team mechanics, they are not people from your home.”
Is there talk of you moving up to Moto2 in 2022? Would you like to make the move?
“We are in June 2021 and next year starts in January. It’s too early to talk, we’ll see... We have to think about the present, race by race, otherwise we risk stopping being competitive in all the rest of the races.” [After this interview KTM confirmed Pedro Acosta’s move to Moto2 in 2022 within the Aki Ajo team structure].
Many are already comparing you to Marc Marquez ....
“He is Marc Marquez, I am Pedro Acosta. Each of us is a different person.”
When you are asked who is your favorite MotoGP rider, you always say... Iker Lecuona!
“Last year in the Rookies whenever I passed the finish straight Iker was on the wall cheering me on... and we didn’t know each other! Now he’s like my big brother in the paddock.”
What would you like to borrow from your reference riders?
“Ninety percent of Marc’s stuff and ten percent of the show that Stoner or Schwantz put on. I would take almost everything from Marquez because when he wins he is superior, he has something different from the others. You could see him in 125cc and he was already riding differently from the others. Studying him is helping me develop my riding.”
Speaking of studying, how was school?
“I was combining it with racing as best I could, but it was complicated because when I was in Red Bull Rookies, I was away from home for 12 weekends, leaving on Wednesday mornings and coming back on Monday. When I got the offers to do the World Championship I dedicated myself 100% to the bikes.
In the end if you want to be one thing you have to be 100% focused on that thing. If you don’t bet everything, don’t bet anything.”
Finally, what is Pedro Acosta like according to Pedro Acosta?
“I’ve always been a bit shy but in the end I had to find a way to open up. I’m serious when I have to be and funny when I can be; I like to make people laugh”.
‘I’m going to have fun for 45 minutes’