Pedro Acosta (MotoGP), who is the new phenomenon considered the heir of Marquez- -

Pedro Acosta, all his records

The student who undermines the master, because according to many fans and professionals he is the designated heir of the eight-time world championthe next cannibal of sport: if he were to win on Sunday Jerezit would become the youngest ever to triumph in the premier class (19 years and 11 months against Marquez’s 20 and 63 days in Austin in 2013), he who has already written some records: two titles won in his first three seasons as a professional, the earliest ever to get his hands on Moto3 and Moto2. Last March 10th, at his debut in Qatar, he became the youngest to record a fastest lap in MotoGPthen the two podiums in Portimao (3rd) and Austin (2nd) which made him jump to fourth place in the standings -26 from the leader Jorge Martin.

Fisherman family and the beginnings

In Portugal, after the first podium, he joked with teammate Fernandez: «When do you have your return flight? I go with the van, I’m poor». Now it is decidedly less so, but Acosta comes from a humble family, dthe fishermen who have handed down the fishing boat for generations, before his grandfather and father mortgaged it to allow young Pedro to pursue a career as a pilot. Also making it easier Rookies Cupa championship that Red Bull and Ktm have been promoting since 2007 to give less well-off talents the chance to compete in the motoring world, avoiding them incurring insurmountable expenses.

The nickname «Shark»

Today the father is always in the garage, as is the sister, who worked in a tomato warehouse and who now looks after his brother’s interests, from helmets and suits to the agenda and interviews, through to sponsors. They continue to live a Mazarron, a municipality of beaches and coves with 30 thousand inhabitants where Pedro bought a house about ten meters from the sea. There is his fan club there – but now also in the paddock – they call him “the shark”from the design that embellished the family fishing boat. He doesn’t like social media, he arrives at the garage at 8 in the morning, before the mechanics.

He likes to observe, as he did in Portimao by getting behind Bagnaia, notoriously the best at conserving tires. He had destroyed them in the previous race in Qatar and then he observed their movements, their tricks. They told him right away: «Start strong, without too many calculations. They teach 10 laps with the top 5 more than 20 from tenth position down”. The problem for his opponents is that Acosta also understood how to manage the race and in fact in the final laps he recorded record times. His strong point is braking, with which he never puts the bike into difficulty. Then the speed in the middle of the curve, the smoothness when traveling, the large bends with the head, shoulder and arm outside the bike. He has the head of a thirty-year-old, they say. He knows what he wants, just like Marquez knew at the beginning of the journey.