Pedro Acosta says the current KTM MotoGP bike is "not good enough" - and called on his team to make a Yamaha-like step.
The news from earlier this week that KTM's future as a company was secured by investment from Indian manufacturer Bajaj Auto was followed in MotoGP by one of its worst days of the 2025 season, as all four KTM RC16s fell short of securing direct passage to Q2 through a top-10 place in Friday practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Acosta was closest of the KTM quartet to getting into that top 10, missing out by 0.044s to his long-time MotoGP ladder rival Fermin Aldeguer - who snatched away his Q2 spot at the last moment with a lap in the tow of Gresini Ducati team-mate Alex Marquez.
When asked for a description of his Friday afterwards, Acosta told the media: "How do I say it?". He was then prompted to use a one-word description, and the word he chose was "sad".
"It's quite sad that the four KTMs are out!" he said, chuckling - before pointing out the top 10 was more compact than usual, split by just half a second.
"It's clear that the bike is not good enough. We need to make the step that Yamaha has made. These guys are unbelievably fast now.
"In my opinion, in my way of seeing things, it was a day in Silverstone where I was more competitive - normally I struggle a lot to be competitive here.
"And it wasn't enough."
Acosta used the words "not good enough" and "not fast enough" repeatedly, in what came off as his usual matter-of-fact bluntness.
"The bike was feeling fantastic," he insisted. "It's some things that we could've done better. But it's not this half-second that we are missing. Maybe it's one tenth.
"OK, this tenth puts us in Q2. But the reality is that the four KTMs are out from Q2, and you have three Yamahas, five Ducatis... and two Hondas, no? [Actually one Honda and one Aprilia]
"This is the reality. We need to make a step. That's it. The bike was fantastic good, the front feeling was fantastic good compared to the beginning of the season. Things to improve in traction - but [the margin is] not 'wow'.
"The bike was working well. Just we weren't fast enough, or were not good enough. Call it like you want.”
Acosta is under contract with KTM until the end of 2026 and has not publicly floated the idea of cutting this short - but has been a permanent fixture of the rumour mill all the same, not just over his long-term future but shorter-term given KTM's financial strife.
The elephant in the room?
The other riders in the KTM camp - Maverick Vinales, Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini - all pointed to specific issues that held them back on Friday.
Vinales referenced an "icy" feeling from the rear tyre going into corners, Binder just felt he couldn't exploit the bike to its fullest in qualifying trim and Bastianini said the RC16 wasn't proving compliant while turning with acceleration.
All through the season none of them, and not Acosta either, have really mentioned the possibility that the KTM's wider financial problems had impacted development, though a reference seemingly snuck out from Bastianini here - when he discussed how the RC16 has not yet been adapted to his preferred riding position.
"I'm not comfortable at 100% from the ergonomy of the bike," said Bastianini, who joined from Ducati this winter. "I need some improvements for the future.
"For tomorrow we have some things to try. But, you know, after the situation from the factory, at the moment it has been complicated to do a step on that point.
"We need to do some new parts. From yesterday arrived some good news [for the wider company]. I think the factory can help us a bit more compared to the first part of the season."
Acosta did not allude to KTM's wider situation at all, but the suggestion that the RC16's development has been compromised feels like the obvious explanation for a day like this - on which the bike felt good but just wasn't fast enough.
He hadn't enjoyed the latest iteration of the RC16 earlier in the season and even reverted to more of a 2024-spec - a path that he still continues with. Yet Acosta insisted that the KTM riders - apart from Bastianini, whose spec "I was not looking at, to be honest" - are "not that far [apart] now" in what they're running.
Yamaha the reference
"I always want to put the example of Fabio [Quartararo] - you remember how difficult it was for him last year?" Acosta said.
"And this guy didn't forget to ride a bike last year. And didn't make two steps [in his own riding for 2025].
"It's just that Yamaha improved, he is pushing, and this can happen.
“What is not normal is that a guy with the level of Fabio was struggling that much last year - but not only him, all the Yamahas.
“Today, you see three Yamahas [in Q2]. Jack [MIller], him and [Alex] Rins. The only one that is missing is [Miguel] Oliveira, but he will come sooner or later. It's the second race that he's making [after injury], it's normal."
The big Yamaha step has come over a single lap, which has historically been a complication for KTM, too.
Even the aforementioned Miguel Oliveira, the only Yamaha rider absent from the top 10 on Friday, told media it was clear to him the bike has improved "everywhere" over one lap - even compared to what he had at the start of the season before his injury, and before Yamaha introduced major engine and chassis upgrades.
"I felt like the engine helps for sure, then you have a super-nice behaviour from the electronics as well," he said.
"It's like we can use the new tyre better, on the rear. And just the overall handling of the bike is better, so we can stop better, in these nice flowing corners the bike is turning quite well, it's stable.
"It's doing everything that a normal bike should do. It's quite OK."
