Pedro Acosta's second-place finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix means KTM is into double digits for podiums across sprints and grands prix in MotoGP this year.
Ten podiums isn't the return KTM will have dreamed of, but it is a healthy return - one it would have probably signed up in the off-season, when it wasn't clear that there would even be a KTM banner to race under.
As the parent company dealt with administration and the difficult search for a rescue deal, the racing department was clearly affected - both in mindset and seemingly in budget, with reports of development interruptions and no wildcards being made available for test rider Pol Espargaro.
But it has recovered from that early-2025 haze. While the prospect of serious motorsport cuts still looms - new owner Bajaj Auto plans "more than 50%" overhead cuts that will include motorsport, according to managing director Rajiv Bajaj - for now the 2027 engine has already been fired up on the dyno and the current MotoGP bike has been clearly improved through the course of the season. Aero development has been a success - but it's also notable KTM riders are now consistently using the tail unit mass damper that most of them clearly had serious reservations about earlier in the year.
Acosta has exploited the RC16 most ably, becoming a near-permanent fixture in the top five as of late, but injury stand-in cameos by tester Espargaro are showing it's not a bike only Acosta can ride.
Tyre wear is a major weakness but Sunday at Sepang showed things aren't hopeless in that regard. Acosta told Spanish media that the electronic aids were dialled down for the main race and that helped keep performance steady - which suggests, as Espargaro already theorised at Phillip Island, that KTM just needs a bit more data and more trial and error to ameliorate the bike's major tyre weakness, rather than this weakness being baked in.
But while Acosta has largely changed his tone at KTM, after a very surly start to the year that he admits he wasn't handling in the best way, he is still very demanding - and one particular answer at Sepang again showed his current ambition may well outstrip what KTM can offer him.
"Even with fewer podiums, I have more points than last year," said Acosta, who indeed has 45 points more over the same number of races compared to 2024.
"Looks like I'm more constant, even more from summer break to here. We aren't losing a lot of points - or we aren't losing a lot of opportunities. OK, was not nice to crash in the Hungary sprint, was not nice to lose the chain in Misano and was not nice to destroy the tyres in Japan.
"But... not a nice season anyway. In my opinion we don't compete for nothing. It's not my target here.
"But it's true that I'm finding many things that before I was missing, like this consistency and this understanding of what MotoGP means, the complete package. I think this is important also. I mean, everyone here in MotoGP has tough years. Everyone needs these hard moments to become one step better."
Acosta is in the mix for third in the standings - admittedly as an outside contender - in his sophomore season, and yet it's clearly not enough. Though he's not showed it publicly, there is no way he hasn't been at least a little rattled by seeing Fermin Aldeguer and Raul Fernandez become grand prix winners - two of his compatriots and peers that Acosta surely believes he should be able to beat most weekends.
His public impatience with KTM doesn't seem to have endeared him to many MotoGP fans, but it's not difficult to understand - especially now that he's the best KTM rider by a huge margin, compared to the start of the season where he struggled to stand out relative to the now-injured Maverick Vinales.
Tester Espargaro said, almost unprompted after the more difficult sprint, that Acosta's current performance level was "painful to see".
"He's much faster than this. If on another bike, he would be winning races," Espargaro admitted.
"But we cannot deliver this performance on our bike yet.
"He's riding very good. It's painful to see him not be on the podium every race with his speed.
"But we will try to make the bike faster, at least for next year, to see him shining more often, yeah.”
KTM, again, deserves a lot of credit for stabilising the programme. Though likely beaten by Aprilia this year after being ahead in 2024, it is on 325 constructors' points - just two fewer than after the same number of rounds last year. And that's with Brad Binder all out of sorts, Enea Bastianini's difficulty in adaptation and Vinales's injury.
But it's not winning with Acosta now (and winning without him looks impossible) - and it's hardly in a position to make any convincing 2027 assurances, given things like the aforementioned Bajaj comments or the departure of engine guru Kurt Trieb to Honda.
The maths on everything working out and everyone staying together just doesn't feel the most logical right now.
