Brad Binder’s 2025 Struggles and the Road to Recovery
While the 2025 MotoGP season has been challenging for several riders, one name that stands out is Brad Binder. Over the past four seasons, he has built a reputation as a reliable frontrunner, consistently delivering strong results and securing valuable points throughout the campaign.
The numbers tell a compelling story. From his second season in 2021 to the end of last year, Binder never finished lower than sixth in the championship. He also managed to secure one victory and ten podiums during that period. Not once since his rookie season did he finish behind another KTM rider—this includes even the 2024 season when Pedro Acosta made a remarkable debut with Tech3 on factory machinery.
However, the situation in 2025 could not be more different. With four rounds remaining, Binder is currently sitting in 11th place with just 118 points and a single top-five finish. In contrast, Acosta, now his teammate at the factory team, is five positions ahead with 215 points and three podium finishes to his name.
Binder candidly addressed the situation during an interview at the KTM hospitality in Mandalika. “Lately, it’s not fun when you’re racing at the 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 the speed we have at the moment and the pace we have, and we just need to really strive to be better and go forward.”
Brad Binder’s MotoGP Career in Numbers
| Year | Championship Finish | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 11th | 87 |
| 2021 | 6th | 151 |
| 2022 | 6th | 188 |
| 2023 | 4th | 293 |
| 2024 | 5th | 217 |
| 2025* | 11th | 118 |
| *season ongoing |
KTM’s Off-Track Struggles
KTM faced significant challenges off the track during the 2024/25 season, which put the team at a disadvantage from the start. However, the RC16 has become more competitive since the Czech GP in July, thanks to an aerodynamic upgrade in Austria that brought it closer to the front.
Despite these improvements, Acosta—and to a lesser extent Enea Bastianini—has benefited more from the upgraded bike, while Binder has yet to put together a clean weekend on the modified RC16. The 30-year-old has gradually adapted to the difficulties of the 2025 season but remains optimistic about finding a breakthrough.
“I wouldn’t say it’s hard to accept, I think it’s quite normal,” he said. “I haven’t had many good results at all, I barely finished any races at the beginning of the year. There was a time where we struggled a little bit, [but] now things are a lot more set, we have a much better understanding, and there’s a lot coming from KTM in the pipeline. I’m looking forward to seeing how this development process goes, and it’s just a matter of time until we’re back at our best.”
Technical Challenges
Binder’s struggles stem from a lack of front-end grip and rear tire vibration, issues that have affected all KTM riders intermittently this year. “The one thing that the guys are working on is to try and play with our chassis a little bit,” he explained. “We’ve had a lot of chatter and are missing some front grip, so they’ve been playing with the stiffnesses and balances to try and make this problem a little bit less.”
When asked if something needed to change on the bike or his riding style, he added: “I’ve tried to change my riding style for a while and I can do it to an extent, but I need a little bit more front end grip. If we can somehow find a balance between the front and the rear that is a bit more forgiving on the front end and we can get rid of our chatter problem, we would be in a very, very different situation right now.”
New Parts in the Pipeline
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia reportedly made a major breakthrough during the Misano test by returning to last year’s GP24 with a 2025 engine. Other riders also had the opportunity to test new parts, and Binder believes these developments could help him in the latter half of the season.
“We tested some upgrades that the guys are bringing and they’re in production now, so there are some good points coming,” he said. “That’s one of the things in the pipeline that can help us a little bit with our performance.”
Gap to Team-Mates
An alarming issue for KTM is the widening 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’ lack of speed in recent races can be attributed to his injury; after all, he adapted quickly to the RC16 in pre-season testing and finished second in Qatar before being demoted to 12th for a tyre pressure infringement. In Bastianini’s case, he also enjoyed some highs this season after a baptism of fire with the KTM, finishing third in the Brno sprint before the summer break before returning on the podium in Barcelona.
That leaves Binder as the only KTM rider yet to stand on a podium in 2025 (Vinales’ penalty was announced after the post-race celebrations). Binder credited Acosta for his impressive form this season, while providing a possible explanation for the gulf between the Spaniard and the other KTM riders.
“At the beginning of the year, there was a little bit more of ‘one weekend, one rider, one weekend the other,’ and then there was a moment where Pedro really made everything on his bike really similar to how we were last season,” Binder explained. “He stuck to a much more normal chassis and that type of stuff, and from then on he’s really been super consistent and just building at it. In that time, we’ve also been playing with a lot of areas which haven’t been working at all, and we get to some tracks where it doesn’t work from lap one and we couldn’t really do anything for the rest of the weekend, so [it has been] a little bit tricky.”
“But of course, he’s been doing an incredible job and it’s very impressive to see how well he rides.”
Signs of Progress
Binder enjoyed his best finish of the season in the Indonesian GP, as he climbed from 15th at the start to finish a solid fourth in the race, just one second off the podium spot. While the KTM stalwart is first to admit that his result was due to the unique conditions in Mandalika, the way he stormed through the field was impressive nonetheless, and bodes well for the rest of the season.
“I think it’s a special place for sure, but I really hope that it’s a changing point for me because I’ve had a really, really, really hard season,” said Binder. “It’s good to finish fourth again, it was great to fight with the boys. But it’s also very special out here, super low group levels, funny tyres. Let’s see when we get back to Europe.”
Indeed, it would be wrong to draw any conclusions from the Indonesia weekend, but breaking inside the top five must serve as a confidence boost for a rider who has gone through so much this season. Binder must be hoping that 2025 is nothing more than a blip as he looks ahead to 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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