Pedro 'The Shark' Acosta is MotoGP's most exciting young talent. The dazzling KTM rider talks about fighting the Ducati hordes, trying to use his brain, and getting bored of speaking to journalists

IT IS THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE MotoGP journalist’s book. Whenever you sit down to interview a rider, you start with the easy questions: flatter his ego or, in pit-lane speak, “tickle his balls”.

Only later do you hit him with the hard questions, so if he decides he has had enough of you and storms out, you have already got enough to write the story.

So, that is how I started this interview with MotoGP’s latest sensation, Pedro ‘The Shark’ Acosta. We talked in KTM’s paddock office and I scribbled some numbers in my notebook which lay on the table between us.

Everyone knows that last year’s MotoGP championship was a Ducati walkover. The Bologna brand won 19 of the 20 Grands Prix and filled 53 of 60 podium places. Who filled the other seven podium places? One went to longtime KTM rider Brad Binder, one to Maverick Viñales, and the other five went to the rookie Acosta, who was still a teenager at the start of his premier-class apprenticeship.

So, I started off by asking the former Moto2 and Moto3 world champion what he thought about being MotoGP’s lone force fighting the Ducati hordes, half expecting him to stretch back in his chair, looking pleased with himself, because many riders would do exactly that. But he did not.

Instead, his right index finger stabbed at the podium numbers written in my notebook.

‘Okay, it’s true that I was the KTM guy with more podiums,’ he says. ‘But we are not looking for this [he points at his podium total], we are looking for this [he points at Ducati’s total]. There is still a way to go…’

In other words, Acosta has not let his ego get the better of him and knows he is still climbing the mountain, so he is not interested in looking back and enjoying the view. He will save that for when he reaches the top.

And you will not find anyone in MotoGP pit-lane who does not think Acosta will make it all the way to the top, because he has a remarkable talent to ride a motorcycle, more so than any MotoGP newcomer since Márquez.

The 20-year-old is also super-sharp and has a great attitude, with that certain swagger that identifies the sport’s true gunslingers.