Nobody can be more prepared

Pedro Acosta has hailed the “special character” of Aki Ajo as the pair will rejoin forces at the factory KTM MotoGP squad from next season.

With Acosta stepping up from Tech3 to the factory KTM squad next year, he will be reunited with former team boss Ajo, who will step away from the head of his own Ajo Motorsport Moto2/3 team to helm KTM’s efforts in the premier class.

Ajo comes on board in place of current KTM team boss Francesco Guidotti, who will leave the squad at the end of the season despite having a year left to run on his contract.

Acosta raced for Ajo’s teams on his way to his 2021 Moto3 title and 2023 Moto2 crown, so is naturally pleased to reconnect with the Finn given their success, and feels he’s the perfect person to lead the KTM MotoGP squad.

“Super happy about that, I think there is no one around this paddock that can be more prepared to take one target like this, that is to fight for MotoGP world titles,” Acosta said of Ajo’s appointment.

“He is a special character for sure. He is a special character that was helping me a lot and I really like him and how direct he is.

“I was talking to him this afternoon about this and I think we are going to make a good match together.”

Focusing on this weekend, Acosta is hopeful of another strong showing following momentum gained from his second place in the Indonesia Grand Prix added to KTM’s recent strong showings in Japan.

In the 2023 sprint race Brad Binder took second and in the 2022 edition the South African also finished runner-up.

“It is true that this track normally helps our bike and we saw that last season Brad and Jack [Miller] were quite competitive,” he said. “The previous season also Brad was on the podium.

“So we hope that with the improvements that we have made in the last couple of races and also the way of working that we are now using we are able to be even closer [to the front] than in Mandalika.”