BEIRER SAYS ACOSTA’S CLEAR FEEDBACK SETS HIM APART AT KTM

KTM boss Pit Beirer says Pedro Acosta’s clear feedback has helped the Spaniard pull well ahead of his teammates, while Brad Binder and the other KTM riders have struggled to explain what they need from the RC16.

Acosta claimed his first MotoGP Grand Prix victory in Austria last month and sits fourth in the championship with 234 points. KTM’s next-best rider, Enea Bastianini, is 12th, one place ahead of Binder, and neither has scored 100 points. Acosta has also outqualified every other KTM rider this season.

Speaking during Austrian Grand Prix practice, Beirer praised Acosta’s riding and the work the team has put in to meet his requests. “The team and everybody went crazy in the last weeks to help him,” he said. But Beirer added that Acosta is currently the only KTM rider who tells the team precisely what he wants. After each session, he said, the next step is “clear like water,” allowing KTM to make changes that help both rider and bike.

Beirer did not call Acosta MotoGP’s benchmark, pointing instead to Marc Marquez, whom he described as “the master” and said was back to “mess up the whole class.” He nevertheless stressed that Acosta is strong.

Binder has publicly recognised the scale of Acosta’s contribution. After the Austrian win, he called his teammate’s riding “unreal” and said Acosta had been “carrying the team,” making KTM’s performance “look a hell of a lot better than they sometimes are.”

Acosta’s crew chief, Paul Trevathan, has also identified a problem for the other KTM riders: they can struggle to establish a solid base setup during Friday’s opening practice, leaving them behind. Acosta would like his teammates to improve, so their progress can give him more meaningful setup options to consider.

Binder has spent his entire MotoGP career with KTM’s factory team, the longest such partnership on the current grid. Bastianini, who joined Tech3 in 2025, has yet to fully adapt to the RC16. Binder’s KTM contract has not been renewed, and he is set to leave MotoGP at the end of the year for BMW in World Superbikes.