Much was expected from Brad Binder in 2023, not least because of his latest contract extension; a deal that ensured he was contracted further into the future than any other rider on the grid.
In the end, the year turned out to be a mixed bag of highs and lows, both for Binder and KTM. He failed to win any of the season’s races but ended with a respectable fourth position overall – enough to give KTM fans some reason for optimism for this year.
Going into the season, Binder is once again rated with the best sportsbooks as being among the favorites to be the outright winner of the Moto GP. Most bookmakers have the 2016 champion as fifth favorite, behind six-time champion Marc Márquez, 2023 winner Francesco Bagnaia, who will be bidding for a hat trick, Jorge Martin, and Bagnaia’s Ducati Lenovo teammate Enea Bastianini.
But with the new season still a couple of months away, it’s worth taking a closer look at how Binder performed last season; such analysis will certainly be ongoing at KTM headquarters.
Sprint success and podium appearances
Grand Prix wins may have been notable by their absence in 2023 but Binder enjoyed plenty of success in the new Saturday Sprint races. He announced his liking for the Saturday contest with two sprint wins out of the first four, in Argentina and Spain, and recorded five second-placed finishes: in Japan, Austria, France, Thailand and Valencia.
Although he didn’t cross the finishing line first in any of the Sunday events, he recorded five podium finishes and made the first five on 10 occasions, showing how competitive he was throughout the year. In the battle to be the best of the non-Ducati competitors, Binder was the clear winner.
Missed opportunities
Among the highlights, however, there were multiple missed opportunities, perhaps the biggest of which came in the final race of the season in Valencia, when KTM appeared to have clinched its first Grand Prix win of the season. Binder had the race in his hands but blew his chance, getting caught out with a cold tire and botching a corner entry, eventually having to settle for third.
This was representative of an apparent drop-off in efficiency from the 2022 season, in which Binder seemed able to always get the maximum out of his machine. He finished sixth in 2022, compared to 2023’s fourth place, but the improvement in terms of points available, from 37.6% to 40.2%, was short of what was expected, given that the KTM RC16 was better in 2023.
That he performed so strongly in the sprints, which award points only down to ninth, as opposed to 15th for the Sunday Grand Prix, was a peculiar quirk of Binder’s 2023. If he had been able to transfer some of that consistent success to the main events, he would have been in contention to disrupt the championship 1-2-3 for Ducati.
In 2022, there had been only one failure to finish, but a year on from that there were four. Only one of those four slip-ups could be written off as a technical issue, and a record of three unforced crashes, along with a remount in Austin, makes for disappointing reading.
Other teams’ struggles
Binder wasn’t the only rider to struggle at times in 2023, and KTM was far from being the only team with problems. Most notably, Yamaha and Fabio Quartararo faced a string of difficulties associated with their bike’s performance, and Quartararo was vocal in expressing his dissatisfaction with what he perceived to be a failure of the team to progress. The Ducati dominance has put the rest of MotoGP under increasing pressure, but it is Binder and KTM who look to be the most likely challengers.
Optimism for 2024
The rollercoaster ride that was 2023 certainly has drained the optimism among KTM fans and there is every reason to expect more from the team and their leading rider in 2024.
The RC16 has been evolving impressively but in the search for those extra margins that could turn a podium finish into a Grand Prix win, Binder has made it clear that he would like to see more grip from the rear of the bike, although the new chassis that was introduced in the middle of the 2023 season has already led to improvements in that area.
That attention to detail and demand for ever-higher standards suggests that Binder will be tackling the 2024 season with renewed energy, and it would not be surprising to see him improving significantly on what was a curious – if ultimately disappointing – 2023.