Long known for his amazing performances, cannonball starts, and daring, spectacular manoeuvres, Brad Binder’s style of driving doesn’t always translate into the best outcomes, and this year in especially the South African hasn’t lived up to expectations. However, what took place? Where is the issue? Is there even a “problem” or is it the bike and the rider?
Although some bookmakers had Binder as one of the favorites to win the title at the beginning of the year, behind Marc Márquez, Pecco Bagnaia, and Jorge Martín, the fact is that, at least thus far, the 33-year-old hasn’t proven to be deserving of such a high ranking among the true contenders.
With two second places in the Qatar Grand Prix, he had a promising start to the season. He finished fourth on Sunday after crashing out of the Portugal Grand Prix, but since the Americas Grand Prix, he hasn’t been the happiest of drivers. He has finished sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix and the Dutch Grand Prix, sixth in the Sprint at Mugello and Assen, and he has already experienced a few crashes.
And how does a rider go from having a strong championship debut and being the putative favorite to going through such a “blackout”? Was Binder’s focus disrupted by Pedro Acosta’s commanding performance, or were there other elements at play? There’s no doubt about it: Binder didn’t lose his riding skills.
Binder acknowledged at the end of the German GP that his KTM RC16 has to be improved. He has stated on a few occasions that neither the team nor he have been able to quite bring everything together on race weekends to produce their best performance on track. He has heard this talk from KTM several times this year, and they have attempted to resolve the situation by adjusting the bike’s settings and making do with what they currently have. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
This summer will be more work for Pol Espargaró and Dani Pedrosa. Binder even stated that he anticipates the #44 rider, who raced full-time until the previous year, will bring a “cannon” to the start of the season. But to what extent can Binder salvage the season? There are still a lot more races to be run, both practically and mathematically, so a lot can happen.
It is certain that Binder is not in as good of a phase right now, or maybe the dominance of the Ducati and occasionally the Aprilia is giving too much advantage to the competition. It will be interesting to see what changes Binder and KTM can make during the summer break, as the latter has suffered more than anticipated even with Acosta in the last few rounds.
