Will Pedro Acosta beat Marc Marquez’s record by becoming the youngest rider to ever win a premier class race in 2024?
We may be getting ahead of ourselves by mentioning that Pedro Acosta has 10 races to beat Marc Marquez’s record of the youngest rider to ever win a premier class race (20 years, 266 days).
Yet his adaptation until now has been stunning. The 19-year-old hasn’t just been fast (ninth at Sepang), but consistent as well (just 3.5sec off the fastest Sprint simulation of the test). More impressive still was how he took the increased media attention in his stride. “Pressure is only a word,” he said. “I’ve lived the last three years of my life with pressure every day – it’s become quite normal.”
Pedro Acosta has impressed in pre-season testing
KTM’s Motorsport Director Pit Beirer said: “There are some natural things in that boy which are just amazing. Even if you go to a wind tunnel and normally you have to school the rider what to do and not to do to find one more little detail. He just jumps on the bike and he does everything perfect there.
“His time (at Sepang) was impressive. And how he spoke to the engineers (and) can announce what he wants for himself and how he wants to have his motorcycle set up, was maybe even more amazing for all of us than the pure speed.”
Augusto Fernandez doesn’t see any reason why his new teammate can’t be competitive from the first race. “It’s going to be sooner than later! He’s going to be fast from the beginning,” he said.
Is Marc Marquez’s record under threat?
We won’t have to wait long to find out if Acosta can break Marc Marquez’s record with the MotoGP season kicking off this weekend in Qatar.
WORDS: NEIL MORRISON PHOTOS: GOLD&GOOSE