KTM Reliability SOS: Double DNF for Binder at Mugello - What’s Going On with the RC16s?

KTM is experiencing a sequence of issues. After what happened in Catalunya, attention is high...

Enea Bastianini shone on Friday at Mugello, but he’s the only bright spot for a KTM that’s having too many reliability problems. Brad Binder was the standout example: two separate issues with his RC16, the last of which you can see in the cover photo, when he was forced to park his bike at the wall (triggering a brief red flag) and jog back to the box like Forrest Gump, before heading out again to complete Practice. What’s more concerning is that the two issues he suffered are the same ones Pedro Acosta had at the last Catalan GP...

"Unfortunately we had two mechanical problems, on two different bikes." What exactly? "They just stopped," Binder admitted to crash.net. It seems there was no prior warning, just a sudden shutdown of the KTM RC16s. Exactly as happened to his teammate in Barcelona, inevitably causing the pile-up with the unlucky Alex Marquez who was following him. Although the South African points out that "From what I know, it’s something different. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about." The fact remains that KTM has been dealing with quite a few reliability problems lately. Besides Acosta’s glaring issue, before the red flag Binder had launched from the back due to a clutch failure, and Bastianini had troubles too.

It seems Vinales as well, although in the last GP his priority—more than thinking about the bike (even if that’s clearly part of the weekend’s work)—was assessing his physical condition in the first race weekend after his latest procedure to address a problem whose effects he’s been feeling since the 2025 German round. Back to KTM, there have been a few too many reliability issues and perhaps not only that: as mentioned, only Enea Bastianini emerged with a superb 3rd place, while the others were well off the Q2 pace, with Acosta only 13th. We’ll see if the situation improves between today and tomorrow, and whether KTM will be a protagonist at Mugello or not.

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