Why Binder struggled in MotoGP 2025 and how he plans to recover

While the 2025 season has been tough for many MotoGP riders, one name stands out brad binderDuring the last four seasons, he earned a reputation as a reliable forward capable of scoring big results and consistently scoring points throughout the campaign.

The statistics speak for themselves. Between his sophomore campaign in 2021 and the end of last season, he never finished lower than sixth in the championship, while also scoring one win and 10 podiums. Not once has he been overtaken by another KTM rider since his rookie season – not even in 2024, when pedro acosta Made Lightning MotoGP debut with Tech3 on factory equipment.

However, the picture may not look much different in 2025. With four rounds remaining, Binder sits 11th in the championship with just 118 points and a single top-five finish. Compare that to Acosta, now his teammate on the factory team, who is five places ahead with 215 points and three Sunday podiums.

Even the South African does not ignore the situation as he sits with Autosport in KTM hospitality in Mandalika. “Lately, it’s not fun when you’re running back, and obviously I don’t want to be up there, but it is what it is,” he said.

“The reality is that this is what we have right now and the momentum that we have, and we really need to try to get better and move forward.”

Brad Binder’s MotoGP career in numbers

*season is going on

KTM’s off-track struggles

KTM’s off-track struggles in 2024/25 left the team on the back foot to start the season. However, the RC16 has become more competitive since the Czech GP in July, with an aero upgrade in Austria bringing it even closer to the front.

But while Acosta – and to some extent anea bastianini -Having benefited from the upgraded bike, Binder has yet to have a clean weekend on the upgraded RC16. The 30-year-old has slowly come to terms with the challenging 2025 campaign, but remains confident he and KTM can make it through.

“I wouldn’t say it’s hard to accept, I think it’s absolutely normal,” he said. “I didn’t get good results at all, I barely finished any races at the beginning of the year.

“There was a time when we struggled a bit, (but) now things are much more settled, our understanding is much better, and there is a lot coming in the pipeline from KTM.

“I look forward to seeing how this development process goes, and it’s only a matter of time until we get back to our best.”

technical challenges

Binder’s problems stem from a lack of front-end grip as well as rear tire vibration, a problem that has affected all KTM riders this year,

“One thing people are working on is trying to play with our chassis a little bit,” he explained. “We’ve talked a lot about that and there’s some front grip missing, so they’re playing with stiffness and balance to try to alleviate that problem a little bit.”

Asked if the bike or his riding style needed some changes, he said: “I have tried to change my riding style for some time and I can do it to some extent, but I need a little more front end grip.

“If we could somehow create a balance between the front and the rear that was a little more forgiving on the front end and we could get rid of our chatter problem, we would be in a very different situation than we are right now.”

new parts in the pipeline

Ducati’s francesco bagnaia Misano appeared to make a major breakthrough in testing as he reportedly returned to last year’s GP24 with the 2025 engine. The same testing also gave other riders a chance to try out new parts, and Binder believes those developments could help him in the latter half of the season.

“We’ve tested some of the upgrades that people are coming up with and they’re in production now, so some good points are coming in,” he said. “This is one of the things in the pipeline that may help our performance a little bit.”

Gap to teammates

A worrying issue for KTM is the growing gap between Acosta and the rest of the line-up. At the Japanese GP, Acosta qualified fourth, just 0.158 seconds off pole, while the other three factory riders started outside the first five rows.

Vinales’s lack of speed in recent races can be attributed to his injury; Ultimately, he quickly adapted the RC16 in pre-season testing and finished second in Qatar before being demoted to 12th due to a tire pressure violation. In Bastianini’s case, he enjoyed some highs this season after his baptism of fire with KTM, finishing third at the Brno Sprint before the summer break before returning to the podium in Barcelona.

This makes Binder the only KTM rider to stand on the podium in 2025 (Viñales’s penalty was announced following the post-race celebration). Binder credited Acosta for his impressive form this season, while providing a possible explanation for the gap between the Spaniard and other KTM riders.

“At the beginning of the year, there was a little more of ‘one weekend, one rider, one weekend another,’ and then there came a moment when Pedro really made everything on his bike really similar to where we were last season,” Binder explained. “He stuck to a much more normal chassis and that type of thing, and since then he’s been really super consistent and just building on that.

“In that time, we’ve also been playing with a lot of areas that weren’t working at all, and we get some tracks where it doesn’t work from the first lap and we can’t really do anything for the rest of the weekend, so (it’s) been a little difficult.

“But of course, he’s doing an incredible job and it’s very impressive to see how well he rides.”

signs of progress

Binder enjoyed his best performance of the season at the Indonesian GP, ​​as he climbed from 15th at the start of the race to finish fourth, just one second off the podium. While the KTM legend was the first to admit that his result was due to the unique conditions at Mandalika, the way he charged through the field was nevertheless impressive, and bodes well for the rest of the season.

“I think it’s definitely a special place, but I really hope this is a turning point for me because I’ve had a really tough season this season,” Binder said. “It’s nice to finish fourth again, it was great to fight with the boys. But it’s also very special here, very low group stage, strange tyres. Let’s see when we get back to Europe.”

Really, it would be wrong to draw any conclusions from the Indonesia weekend, but a top five finish would be a confidence boost for a rider who has been through so much this season. Binder will be hoping 2025 is nothing more than a blip as he awaits the final year of the current regulation cycle and the end of the rare three-year contract he signed with KTM in 2022.

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– Autosport.com Team