The Spanish GP at Jerez proved to be one in all KTM’s finest weekends of the 2023 marketing campaign, with Brad Binder profitable the dash and ending second in the principle race forward of team-mate Jack Miller.
With Tech3 GasGas rookie Acosta coming to the 2024 Jerez spherical off the again of successive podium finishes, he and the remainder of the KTM steady have been anticipated to indicate sturdy.
Nonetheless, sixth was the most effective a KTM rider might handle within the grand prix – courtesy of Binder – whereas Acosta was tenth.
Talking after the Spanish GP, Acosta stated the model got here to Jerez “with too many illusions” and it will be served effectively to regulate expectations going ahead.
“Typically, I am speaking concerning the model, not simply me, I feel we got here with too many expectations to do very effectively right here,” he started.
“And it’s a must to perceive that we aren’t the one ones bettering, different manufacturers are bettering as effectively.
“I feel [with] this extreme expectation [it] can be good for us this 12 months to take it simple on the races that went effectively final 12 months and see what occurs from the start.
“All of us got here in with too many illusions.”
Pedro Acosta, Purple Bull GASGAS Tech3
Picture by: Rob Grey / Polarity Picture
He added, when pressed on folks’s expectations of the 19-year-old: “I do not care about folks’s expectations, I way back stopped listening to exterior noise and the phrases of individuals like [Jorge] Lorenzo, who clearly find out about bikes.
“However right here no person is aware of what is going on to occur till you cross the end line.
“You can too be within the lead for all of the laps of a race and fall or be overtaken on the final nook, so predictions are of little use.
“I do not care about that side. I am speaking concerning the expectations of the model, final 12 months’s outcomes have been a weekend that KTM had by no means seen earlier than and that led us, all of us, to think about a grand prix [in Spain] with too excessive expectations.
“I feel this actuality test for the model will permit us to place our toes on the bottom for the Misano weekend, for instance, the place final 12 months Binder and Pedrosa did very effectively and this 12 months we can be extra relaxed.”
Regardless of the troublesome weekend for the KTM model, Acosta nonetheless sits fourth within the championship and is simply 23 factors off chief Jorge Martin.