RiderTua.com – In the 2024 MotoGP season, there are only three riders who are under contract until 2025: Luca Marini, Johann Zarco and Brad Binder. In fact, Binder has been extended until 2026, considering that last August KTM decided to sign a three-year contract extension and thus confirming KTM’s trust in the South African rider. Brad Binder just needs to think about how to race well and try to improve on last season’s results.
In the 2023 MotoGP season, the 28 year old rider finished fourth in the final standings, becoming the first non-Ducati person in the top 4. He won two sprint races (Argentina and Jerez), but was unable to win Sunday’s race despite collecting five podiums. He has not been able to win a Sunday race in the MotoGP class since 2021, when he won in Austria ahead of Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.
Brad Binder: With the new 2024 version of the KTM bike, there is still no need to change the riding style
KTM’s home race was his second win in the top class where the first was as a rookie in 2020 in Brno, this year he wants to return to the top of the podium and not just occasionally. KTM invests and develops to win, a great season is expected from Binder. Winter testing showed that the Ducati was still the strongest bike on the grid, but the full potential of the RC16 was yet to be seen. Will this be a good year to see the Austrian team fight for the title?
In the garage, Binder they had a crew chief he knew very well, he was Andres Madrid. The Spaniard spoke about the kind of work his rider is doing.. “At this stage of his career, the most important thing is improvement. We have added some ‘checks’ to the to-do list to monitor his progress and improve consistency. We also changed some details of the bike to eliminate what which has hindered him in the past,” he said.
The South African was strong especially in the race, he needs to make progress in qualifying to be able to start further ahead. His crew chief knows what steps to take. “The one thing we missed was continuing to improve on Saturday (Qualifying). Usually we do that, but he’s been good at races more often than not. Our best qualifying sessions were when Brad brought something after practice. It’s difficult to get another 0.7 seconds when we already gave everything on Friday. We lost a bit of margin to get that extra,” he said.
Will the new KTM RC16 force Binder to change his riding style? Madrid answered.. “So far this has not been necessary. However, even though we have designed a bike that makes riders feel comfortable, we need more time to exploit its potential to the maximum,” he concluded.
If there is no need to change his racing style, Brad certainly has to improve other things… and become a rider who can make Bagnaia worry in the fight for the championship title.
