Pedro Acosta says he will do everything it takes to put KTM back on the top step on the podium before he moves to Ducati’s factory MotoGP team next year.
Acosta has been KTM’s benchmark since he stepped up to the Austrian marque’s works team last year, quickly learning from his early-career errors to emerge as a regular podium contender.
The Spaniard started the 2026 season with a victory in the Thailand sprint, and he has scored several podiums in both Saturday and Sunday races.
However, as he approaches the second half of the campaign, a maiden premier class win continues to elude the 2023 Moto2 champion.
While the RC16 has not proved to be anywhere as competitive as the Ducati GP26 or the Aprilia RS-GP so far this year, Acosta is hoping certain tracks on the calendar in September and October would allow him to secure a breakthrough result.
“Until the end of the year, I'm in KTM. I will give everything I have to take this first victory,” he said.
“There are still many races to go. We will have much better tracks [in the coming months] than in the first part of the season because normally when we go to Austria, Misano and also Asia, we make a step.
“At the moment, it's quite tough. We have four really strong Aprilias, five or six strong Ducatis around.
“At the moment, it's quite difficult to get [the win]. I hope that before the end of the year the opportunity arrives, but even if not, I will be super happy if we close the distance to the top three of the championship.
“I think we should be closer without the mistakes that we did, but you cannot change the past. Now it's time to try to keep going with the good job that we are doing and like I say try to be as close as we can to these top three.”
Heading into this weekend’s British GP, Acosta sits a solid seventh in the standings, 60 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia).
Acosta believes that technical issues have been the main limiting factor for him this season, having retired from strong positions in both Barcelona and Brno.
“We don't have to forget all the mistakes and all the technical issues that we have in the first part of the year,” he said.
“It's the moment to try to improve and try to arrive at the end of the year at the maximum level that we can to try to, first of all try to fight for this first victory, but also try to be as close as the top three of the championship, which we are not so far [from].
“It's true that, like I say, if this second half of the season we just try to not have these technical issues maybe we can try to get back in the fight for the top position of the championship. “
Pressed further as to whether he sees himself in the championship fight, Acosta replied:
“No, being honest. We just need to focus ourselves to not f**k up.
“I think at the end of the year, we will be closer than what we expected. You know, how many problems we had during this first half of the year and [despite those] we are not that far.
“We need now to try to not make mistakes, try to be more focused than ever because I think we are much closer than what we can even imagine at the beginning of the year.”
