Brad Binder has long been synonymous with a driver capable of incredible performances, cannonball starts and risky, spectacular maneuvers, but his way of driving doesn’t always mean the best results and this year in particular the South African has fallen short. But what happened? Where is the problem? Is it the bike, or the rider, or is there even a “problem”?
At the start of this year Binder was considered by some bookmakers to be one of the favorites for the title, behind Marc Márquez, Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín, but the truth is that in practice the #33 hasn’t justified that high position among the real contenders for the title, at least not yet.
The season started promisingly enough, with two second places in the Qatar GP, he crashed out in the Sprint in Portugal but was fourth on Sunday, but since the Americas GP he hasn’t been exactly the happiest: he’s been sixth in a couple of races and hasn’t done much better than that : sixth in the long race of the Spanish GP and the Dutch GP, and sixth in the Sprint at Mugello and Assen, and he’s already added a couple of crashes along the way.
And how does a rider go from being a theoretical favorite, and with a promising start to the championship, to such a “blackout”? Was it Pedro Acosta’s overwhelming performance that overshadowed Binder’s concentration, or were there other factors? One thing is certain: Binder didn’t forgot how to ride.
Binder has said a few times that the team and he himself haven’t exactly been able to put everything together on race weekends to put their best performance on track, and he admitted at the end of the German GP that his KTM RC16 needs to be updated. The way he and KTM have tried to get out of this moment is by changing the bike’s settings, and trying to work with what they have at the moment, a conversation he has heard many times this year from… Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).
Pol Espargaró and Dani Pedrosa have extra work to do this summer, with Binder even explaining that he expects the #44, a rider who until last year was racing full-time, to bring a “cannon” to the start of the season, but how much can Binder save the season? In reality and mathematically speaking, there are still many races to be run, so a lot can happen.
What is certain is that Binder is in a less positive phase, or perhaps the supremacy of the Ducati and sometimes the Aprilia are leaving too much to the competition, so it remains to be seen what this summer break can bring to Binder and KTM, which even with Acosta in the last few rounds has suffered more than expected.