There's been much hype about KTM's superstar young MotoGP rider Pedro Acosta - hype that he lived up to in his rookie season in 2024 by routinely being the fastest of its four riders.
But with a challenging bike in 2025 and his motivation seemingly at an all-time low, he has slumped in relative form within KTM's new-look line-up.
That's prompted questions - including plenty from The Race Members' Club on Patreon - about whether Acosta was overhyped in the first place.
So why has he actually been overshadowed at KTM by Maverick Vinales in particular lately?
When he first joined MotoGP as part of KTM's satellite squad Tech3 last season, Acosta made an immediate impression, battling against Marc Marquez for the podium places early in his very first race.
It didn't matter that he was unable to maintain that pace all race - he had shown the outright speed required to live up to the reputation he had established by winning the Moto3 and Moto2 titles within three years. He was on the MotoGP podium next time out at Portimao and again one race later at Austin.
And while his form might have come and gone as the season progressed - something you'd expect of a rookie - Acosta nonetheless just missed out on ending the 2024 season as best KTM, finishing the year sixth overall in the championship standings and a mere two points behind the much more experienced Brad Binder.
Coming into 2025, much of the same was expected from him. No longer a rookie and lining up against two new quasi-team-mates (Vinales and Enea Bastianini) at Tech3 who had a very different bike to learn, it was expected that Acosta would be able to clearly establish himself as KTM's number one rider with a season of experience under his belt.
That, so far, hasn't really been the case though. Sure, he's still KTM's top rider in the standings, but only by one point from Binder. Bastianini, who's been struggling the most so far on the 2025 bike, is only five points back - and it's only thanks to his Lusail tyre pressure infringement that Vinales isn't well clear of all three other KTM racers.
So what’s gone wrong so far for Acosta? Well, one thing is very clear: he's deeply unhappy with the state of things at KTM. Lurching from one financial crisis to another this winter and seemingly seeing development suffer as a result, it's clear that the bike isn't up to spec right now, and he's been loudly vocal about that.
That, of course, has been somewhat countered in recent races by strong performances from Vinales in particular, and Acosta's rather lacklustre ride to third of the KTMs behind Vinales and Binder in last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix somewhat negates his ability to moan too loudly about the performance of the RC16.
Added to all of that is the constant speculation about what his future holds, as he openly discusses whether it lies elsewhere. It wouldn't be hard to think that perhaps right now, his heart isn't quite in the KTM project anymore.
We can't ignore his physical condition, as Acosta revealed after Jerez that there were ongoing complications regarding arm pump that he'd kept quiet since the Termas de Rio Hondo race six weeks earlier. That situation was serious enough to prompt immediate surgery after the Jerez race last week.
But that doesn't wholly explain either his form or his attitude of late. Clearly, he's unhappy with KTM, and while there are other offers under his nose despite his 2026 KTM contract, it's perhaps no surprise that he's somewhat distracted.
Perhaps the best thing that can happen now for Acosta's season is a quick resolution over where he's likely to end up next season so that he can get on with the task in hand.
His Honda options are, according to The Race's sources in the paddock, looking increasingly thin, while it remains unclear whether a satellite Ducati team has the financial ability to buy him out of his current deal - despite the constant chat about a move to VR46.
That means at least another year and a half on the KTM, something that Acosta might need to accept sooner rather than later.
