Acosta on Marquez-Ducati partnership: 'He is the last of an era'

For many, the signing represents a changing of the guard as Marquez hands over to his Spanish successor. With that said, neither man has ever lost to their teammate in their careers, Acosta in particular has never even been outqualified by his teammates in over 50 Grand Prix starts. As a result, the partnership is expected to be a generational battle the likes of which we haven't seen since the days of Rossi and Lorenzo at Yamaha.

Speaking a the pre-race press conference in Assen ahead of this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, Acosta gave his perspective on partnering up, and rivalling, one of the sport's all-time greats:

"For me, I said already many times that it's an honour to come and share a team with Marc." he said, "I say already that he's more or less at the end of his career. I'm just starting, let's say, my career in MotoGP. For this, I think it's a good opportunity for me to learn from him, try to get a bit of his experience. But at the end he was mainly the last one of the last era that was riding with great riders like Dani [Pedrosa], Jorge [Lorenzo] and Valentino [Rossi]."

Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi was enthusiastic about the signing and noted that Acosta had been on Ducati's radar for some time. Speaking with the media in Assen, the boss made the following comments:

"Because we think Pedro is one of the most talented young guys of this paddock. What he's shown since the beginning of his career in the Rookies Cup, Moto3 and Moto2 is something that was amazing. Unfortunately,he hasn't yet got the results from those previous categories in MotoGP, but he will."

"It was an easy decision. Marc never said something about his teammate and when we told him we are dealing with Pedro he clapped his hands and said 'Okay, you made the right decision.'"

When asked repeatedly about his own perspective on having a fiery new teammate like Acosta, Marquez made sure to not only give 'The Shark' his dues, but also to remain respectful towards his current teammate and two-time World Champion, Francesco Bagnaia:

"Of course, Pedro is one of the best riders who was in the market so I think he was one of the best choices for any team. He's [a] fast and young and fresh rider, so he will be very fast from the beginning. But I will not go more deeply because I have a huge respect for Pecco and he's my actual teammate."