Pedro Acosta believes cornering remains the key area where KTM’s MotoGP bike is falling short of pacesetter Aprilia in the early part of the 2026 season.
Aprilia dominated the opening three flyaway rounds across Asia and the Americas, with factory rider Marco Bezzecchi extending a winning streak that began with the Portuguese GP at the tail end of 2025.
But KTM’s heavily-updated RC16 also proved competitive in the hands of Acosta, helping the Mattighofen-based brand climb to second in the teams’ championship and third in the constructors’ table.
KTM has made significant strides in tyre management, which was once considered its Achilles’ heel, while other improvements have also played a role in turning the RC16 into a credible challenger.
However, Acosta believes the Austrian manufacturer needs to do more to catch up to the competition, insisting it is still trailing both Aprilia and Ducati in the pecking order.
“It looks like Aprilia is finding something to turn [the bike] better than the other brands,” he said.
“Since Aleix [Espargaro] was at Aprilia, turning was quite awesome compared to other brands, even more [compared] with the KTM maybe.
“They were quite consistent in Turn 1. With the change of direction, they were not making any mistakes – both Marco and Jorge [Martin].
“It’s quite difficult when you are making some mistakes just trying to follow [them] at the same pace, you know.
“I think they are turning a lot, and it’s also where at KTM it’s not our strong point.”
He added: “We know our limitations. At the moment, Aprilia and Ducati are one step in front of us, or maybe two.
“At the moment, we are just trying to be inside the top five for every race and keep going like this.”
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Acosta heads into the Spanish GP third in the championship, behind only Aprilia duo Bezzecchi and Martin, having claimed two grand prix podiums and a sprint win so far in 2026. He has already accumulated 60 points in the standings, compared to 22 for Enea Bastianini, 17 for Brad Binder and zero for the injured Maverick Vinales.
Bastianini came closest to matching Acosta’s pace at Austin, scoring a podium in the sprint – admittedly after Acosta was penalised for a tyre infringement – before finishing a solid sixth in the main race.
The Spaniard feels KTM should tune the bike in such a way that his team-mates can also race near the sharp end of the grid.
“I’m super happy that Enea could make a really big step because it was helping a lot to the brand, to the factory, and even to me, to become better during the weekend,” he said.
“This is what we need at the moment. Try to find a base set-up that everyone can ride quite fast, like Enea was doing this weekend. Like this, we will be able to grow up.”
The European leg of the season is expected to provide a clear picture of the competitive order, with cooler conditions and more conventional circuits offering a different challenge to the early flyaways.
Asked where he could realistically aim for his first grand prix win in MotoGP, Acosta said: “Time will tell. Now, every race will be a question mark for me. It looks like the bike was working quite okay outside of Europe and we could more or less follow the rhythm of the Ducatis and the Aprilias, but we don’t have that much to try to beat them.
“It looks like Aprilia and Ducati are matching quite well to every track, even if it’s a stop-and-go or whatever. For this, Jerez will be another question mark for us.”
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