KTM, Brad Binder: Here's What Didn't Work in the 2025 World Championship

Binder looks back on last MotoGP season, explaining what didn’t work: he’s eager to bounce back in 2026.

The only KTM rider who managed to put together a strong 2025 MotoGP championship was Pedro Acosta, fourth in the final standings and consistently in the top 5 in the second half of the year. It went differently for his teammate Brad Binder, eleventh in the championship with no podiums to his name. Only three times, between sprints and races, did he finish in the top five. That’s not what he wanted. In 2026 he aims for much better results. He’ll also have a new crew chief in the box, Phil Marron.

Interviewed by Crash.net, the South African rider was able to explain what issues he faced riding his KTM RC16: "I crashed often, I frequently lost the front. So I lost a lot of confidence in the bike’s front end and that led me to be very cautious. Because as soon as I tried to push a bit, I lost the front and crashed, which was quite frustrating. But it seems we’ve solved the problem a little, making the front much more solid. I feel I can push much better."

Even in the 2024 MotoGP season Binder had some front-end issues, but he managed them better and was still fairly quick. In 2025 everything got worse and there was also the chattering factor causing some trouble: "We had quite a bit of chattering at some tracks. In the second half of the year there was a bit less than at the beginning, but it’s a problem that sometimes crops up at unexpected moments. Sometimes it’s nothing, other times it goes crazy as soon as you push."

Another problem for the 2016 Moto3 world champion was qualifying, an aspect he’s aiming to improve, because starting too far back is often a sentence in races.

Binder and Acosta are both heavy brakers, with fairly similar riding styles, while the KTM Tech3 duo Bastianini-Vinales ride differently. Binder commented on the topic: "Now we have different extremes. Maverick is super clean, super precise. Enea is really good at picking the bike up on corner exit; he focuses on braking and corner speed. He also struggles a bit in the time-attack. My style has changed a lot; I’m much cleaner now. There’s still work to do, but I’m on the right track."

Looking at other riders’ data can help you improve; sharing is constant at KTM and among MotoGP manufacturers. Binder also pointed out one area he’d like to improve for the 2026 World Championship RC16: "If I could choose just one thing, I’d say that if on corner exit I could simply accelerate, every time I pick the bike up, it would make a huge difference." Acceleration absolutely needs to be improved, and Acosta has stressed this several times as well, wanting Ducati-like effectiveness on corner exit.