When Valentino Rossi turned his back on Honda at the end of 2003 it was to try and show that, despite the new era of exotic four-stoke technology, the rider was still the main element for MotoGP success.to Yamaha’s first premier-class title in a decade, but also by being the only Yamaha race winner for the next four years.
“Sure, it's better today to be on a Ducati than on an ‘X’ bike from the Far East. But remember what one guy, Valentino Rossi, was doing on a Yamaha for years when the others were nowhere. I was with Yamaha then and we were not even in the points sometimes.“So the rider is essential. And although we’ve had a lot of top riders recently - Moto2 world champions like Remy and Augusto, plus Raul who was vice-champion - when we saw Pedro coming, we saw this guy is special, this guy is different.
“Then he won another title in year two of Moto2. But still I said wait and see, because once you jump on a MotoGP bike you have different tyres, different brakes, a lot of electronics, two bikes to work with, technicians talking to you. Sometimes it takes a while before you are fast. “So far, almost all the time, for Pedro it's better, better, better, better. He's very methodical. He's very clever. He has something in his DNA. He just understands a bike.
But the Frenchman - who founded Tech3 in 1990 and has competed in the premier-class, with Yamaha and then KTM since 2001 – had already seen enough to know that Acosta will be a ‘key player’ in MotoGP ‘very soon’. “Now with Brad , who has experience, and Pedro, who has the potential as a rookie, I think these two guys will become the leaders of the Pierer Mobility Group project.”Despite Acosta’s instant success, Poncharal repeatedly highlights that the Spaniard is ‘ready to struggle’ and knows MotoGP won’t be a walk in the park.