Pedro Acosta names ex-MotoGP rider who deserves full-time seat again

KTM’s Pedro Acosta believes “there are people who should consider” test rider Pol Espargaro for a full-time MotoGP ride, following his 2025 wildcard outings.

Pol Espargaro made his MotoGP debut in 2014 with Tech3 Yamaha as the reigning Moto2 champion, and served stints with KTM and Honda.

His career was thrown off-course in 2023, when he suffered a serious crash during the Portuguese Grand Prix and missed the first half of the campaign.

Though he had a contract with Tech3 KTM for 2024, he stepped away from full-time racing to take up a test rider role with the Austrian brand and get himself back to full fitness.

Espargaro made three appearances in 2024, scoring points in two of them, and bagged top 10 finishes in four of the five races he contested in 2025.

How Espargaro has helped Acosta

At the end of the 2025 campaign, Pedro Acosta heaped praise on the job Espargaro has done as KTM test rider and believes he deserves a full-time ride in the premier class.

“There are people who should consider making Pol a permanent rider in the championship again,” he said.

“I would recommend him to anyone in the championship.

“This year, he has come to several races, he has [almost] always been in Q2, and [if he hadn't] got heated and crashed [in Malaysia], he would have always been in the top 10 [in races].

“Pol is coming here without pressure; he's having a great time.

“In Australia, it helped me a lot to ride behind him.

“He’s very open to working and helping the factory.

“It's always good to have a rider like that.

“He rides the bike in a similar way to me, aggressively with the front tyre, and it's good for me to have options from someone with experience and the data of someone who's fast.”

Espargaro had been considering a return to racing in World Superbikes, though will continue his KTM test rider role instead next year.