Pedro Acosta makes his debut in MotoGP this year, being one of the riders highly regarded by his rivals from the start. He quickly positioned himself in the fight for top positions and, despite a recent drop in results, he already has two podiums and has shown he has everything to be at the top.
The young rider from Red Bull GasGas Tech3 admitted to La Vanguardia newspaper that his arrival might not have been well received by his rivals, but emphasized that MotoGP is not about making friends and maintaining good relationships:
– For the riders, I don’t think it was very well received. I have a bit of a special mentality: I don’t like making friends here, I come to have a good time and win, not to go to dinner with my colleagues. I only have a relationship with two, Aleix [Espargaró] and [Jorge] Martín. It’s hard to have friends when you’re competing.
In Acosta’s view, his reception by the other MotoGP riders was identical to how he would have received them: ‘They received me the same way I would receive them. You have to understand that this is competition, that when you put your life on the line out there for the same goal, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. But, little by little, I’m gaining space among the people in MotoGP’.
Whether or not he gains respect is something that doesn’t worry the Spaniard: ‘I haven’t focused on that. This is a shark tank, and you never come to gain respect. It happened with big names, who never came to respect each other, like Valentino Rossi and [Jorge] Lorenzo, or Valentino and [Max] Biaggi’.