Pedro Acosta on KTM MotoGP bike gains: ‘I had five crashes in last year's test’
Pedro Acosta has highlighted just how much progress KTM has made with its 2026 bike
Pedro Acosta says the 2026 KTM MotoGP bike is “slightly easier to ride”, and notes that last year at the Sepang test “I crashed five times” trying to push.
The Austrian manufacturer was confident in the work it had done over the winter, with its riders noting that they would have more new items to try at the Sepang test.
This has so far proven to be the case, with KTM debuting new aero, chassis and swingarm this week in Malaysia.
Pedro Acosta led the way for the marque on a rain-hit day two of the test in fourth, and notes that the 2026 RC16 feels “easier” to ride.
“Just more than anything, the bike feels slightly easier to ride to be fast on,” he told the official MotoGP website.
“Last year, I remember that here I crashed like five times in the test and three again in the race weekend.
“It’s quite tough going fast when you are crashing that many times.
“I am quite happy for how things are going. It’s true that we were working a lot this winter.”
On his testing programme for Wednesday, he added: “I’m quite happy about the work of today.
“We were super focused on aerodynamics. It was a long day. Yesterday, with the chassis configuration test was also a long day.
“But I’m happy. We were quite fast. There’s still work to do. For the weather, we were not able to test all of our schedule.”
As far as KTM’s aero upgrades are concerned, Acosta is happy with the package he has ridden with so far.
“I think I’m quite happy, to be honest.
“It’s true that I still need to check the other guys and see what direction the manufacturer takes. But it looks quite ok, in my opinion.”
A key weakness KTM battled with last year was tyre life, which persisted from testing through to the end of the campaign.
With a lack of proper long-running in testing as of yet, Acosta is wary of making any firm assessment of tyre wear on the RC16,
“Tomorrow, with one extra tyre, will be the day to focus on the tyre life.
“It looks like it is better. But never say never.”
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