'It's like F1' - Pedro Acosta reveals why he still hasn't won a MotoGP race

But that begs the question - why hasn’t he won a race yet?

The Spaniard won the Moto3 championship at the first time of asking and Moto2 at the second, leaving him very used to the top step of the podium.

However, in his third year in MotoGP, he’s yet to head the rostrum, instead flanking it 13 times, seven of those as a runner-up.

Acosta has recorded each of those successes on a struggling KTM, and in the winter he’ll swap it for a shiny new red Ducati.

With the Italian squad dominating the sport for the past four seasons, it may come as a surprise that they’re hiring a rider yet to win a race to partner Marc Marquez.

But for Acosta, the reason is obvious, as he told Sky Italia:

It’s worth noting that the 22-year-old did well to diplomatically avoid KTM’s reliability issues, most notably at the Catalan Grand Prix where an engine failure sent Alex Marquez into the back of his No.37 machine and straight to hospital.

No one doubts that on a Ducati or Aprilia, Acosta would be a race winner, but he will have another issue next season.

On equal machinery on the other side of the garage will be the man many consider the greatest to ever do it - Marquez.

For most, that’s a terrifying prospect, and one that has been argued to have caused Francesco Bagnaia’s fall from championship contention since they became teammates.

But for Acosta, he has a simple solution to avoid the stress: