The Spanish GP at Jerez proved to be one of KTM’s best weekends of the 2023 campaign, with Brad Binder winning the sprint and finishing second in the main race ahead of team-mate Jack Miller.
With Tech3 GasGas rookie Acosta coming to the 2024 Jerez round off the back of successive podium finishes, he and the rest of the KTM stable were expected to show strong.
However, sixth was the best a KTM rider could manage in the grand prix – courtesy of Binder – while Acosta was 10th.
Speaking after the Spanish GP, Acosta believes the brand came to Jerez “with too many illusions” and it would be served well to adjust expectations going forward.
"In general, I'm talking about the brand, not just me, I think we came with too many expectations to do very well here,” he began.
“And you have to understand that we are not the only ones improving, other brands are improving as well.
“I think [with] this excessive expectation [it] will be good for us this year to take it easy on the races that went well last year and see what happens from the beginning.
“We all came in with too many illusions.”
He added, when pressed on people’s expectations of the 19-year-old: “I don't care about people's expectations, I long ago stopped listening to outside noise and the words of people like [Jorge] Lorenzo, who obviously know about motorcycles.
“But here nobody knows what's going to happen until you cross the finish line.
“You can also be in the lead for all the laps of a race and fall or be overtaken at the last corner, so predictions are of little use.
“I don't care about that aspect. I'm talking about the expectations of the brand, last year's results were a weekend that KTM had never seen before and that led us, all of us, to imagine a grand prix [in Spain] with too high expectations.
"I think this reality check for the brand will allow us to put our feet on the ground for the Misano weekend, for example, where last year Binder and Pedrosa did very well and this year we will be more relaxed.”
Despite the difficult weekend for the KTM brand, Acosta still sits fourth in the championship and is only 23 points off leader Jorge Martin.
