Pedro Acosta's buoyant KTM rally cry - away from 'dark hole...'

Pedro Acosta says KTM is out of the “dark hole we were in” at MotoGP’s summer break, but admits “we are still not in the moment to think about victories”.

The 2025 season has been far from ideal for the Austrian manufacturer, who faced an uncertain future until earlier this summer due to a major financial crisis.

While this was going on in the background, KTM’s form on-track in MotoGP had dropped off compared to last season, with its first podium not coming until round 12 at Brno earlier this month.

Pedro Acosta has at points been very vocal about the lack of progress KTM has made with its bike, with his future at the brand something of a question mark all year.

But having shown a more consistent top five pace in the final few rounds up to the summer break, Acosta reflects on the campaign in a more positive light.

“We were working quite ok in the last couple of weekends, especially since I had the surgery in my right arm,” he said after the Czech Grand Prix.

“We were getting better and better. It’s true that we are still not in the moment to think about victories and all these things, even sometimes to do a podium, but anyway we have to try to catch the opportunities that are around the championship.

“It was not an easy first part of the championship for me and KTM. Now we are coming back faster than last year and sometimes the experience is paying off for this.”

He added: “I mean, was not easy. That’s for sure. But we go away from the dark hole that we were in.

“And now we have to keep going. We know that the bike will improve. It’s a matter of time.

“Now we have a good race for us, for the factory [in Austria], and try to charge the batteries for the Red Bull Ring.”

Pedro Acosta optimistic for KTM

Acosta helped KTM to a double podium at Brno, though concedes the track may have helped the bike.

However, he believes he is “riding better than last year” and feels a regular podium challenge is nearing.

“In all my career qualifying was not my strong point, but now we more or less managed to be minimum in the third row - which, ok, is not so good but it’s not the disaster it was in the past years,” he explained.

“Also this experience is helping because last year I was fast, but sometimes in the end of the races I was struggling to know how to use the electronics or how to ride the bike with other kinds of electronics.

“Now, this is helping a lot. In the tests we are doing a lot of work on this and also at home than this.

“Now, I’m riding better than last year. Ok, maybe this track was helping us a bit but in the last couple of the GP we have been catching up.

“Marc [Marquez] is faster than us in the beginning and end of GPs, but anyway we are getting closer to the podiums.”

Acosta currently sits seventh in the standings on 124 points and is the top KTM rider in the championship.