GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta has risen as the surprising standout of the 2024 MotoGP season. With his championship-winning performance in Moto2 and Moto3, expectations for his debut season in MotoGP were understandably high. However, it was unexpected to see him become the quickest KTM RC16 rider this year, frequently surpassing seasoned competitors like Brad Binder and Jack Miller.

The 20-year-old credits a significant portion of his achievements to the Red Bull Rookies Cup—the MotoGP development series he triumphed in 2020. Eurosport India recently launched a six-part documentary series titled Born Racers, which follows the journeys of young motorcycle racing talents as they strive to demonstrate their capabilities in the Rookies Cup. Thus, we engaged with Acosta at the Thai GP to discover more about the crucial impact of this series on his career, his racing mindset in MotoGP, and other insights.

I’m quite strong at braking, but I still need to work a little bit more in the corners and be a little smoother because this is where I normally suffer at tracks like Assen and Silverstone. But we are working on that. The team and other people around me are also helping me to understand how to achieve this. We are getting better, Acosta said.

We hope! We have tracks that we can say are good for us, like here in Buriram or Malaysia, where we had the winter test. Also, Valencia was good for us last season; we saw that Brad Binder and Jack Miller were quite competitive over there, the Spanish racer added.

I think my approach has to be the same. [Japan] was the moment when we were close to winning a race, and I think we need to stay in this direction because it’s the one that is working for us. As for beating the Ducatis, there’s no other way. In the end, we need to take risks to be closer to them, and then we can fight. For this, we need to know where the limit is, but always try to be quite close, the 20-year-old racer insisted.

We are quite strong at braking; that’s easy to see. We need to improve qualifying, that’s for sure because now Practice and Q2 are the two most important sessions in MotoGP. We need to try to be a little bit more in front to fight for victories, Acosta expressed.

In the end, the Rookies Cup was everything for my career. My family didn’t have the money to afford my racing, and the Rookies Cup was the most affordable way and offered similar opportunities to everyone to come to the [MotoGP] championship. Also, having Red Bull and KTM behind you, if you have a good championship in the Rookies Cup, opens many doors to having these two partners behind you, he concluded.

Meanwhile, MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin used a Lord Ganesha-inspired helmet for the Thai GP, where he finished second behind eventual winner Francesco Bagnaia. The 26-year-old Spanish believes that the new helmet will help him during the PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia. I wanted to make a tribute to Lord Ganesh, who is a Hindu god. I have a tattoo of him on my shoulder; I think it can help me during the weekend, said Martin.

Martin was able to recover and secure a second-place finish, while rookie rider Acosta achieved an impressive third place. Martin remains at the top of the MotoGP leaderboard, holding a 17-point advantage over Bagnaia, with the next race scheduled to occur in Malaysia from November 1-3.