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

While the 2025 season has been tough for several MotoGP riders, one name that stands out is Brad Binder. During the last four seasons, he earned a reputation as a dependable frontrunner capable of big results and consistent points finishes 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 victory and 10 podiums along the way. Not once since his rookie season was he outscored by another KTM rider – not even in 2024, when Pedro Acosta made a lightning MotoGP debut with Tech3 on factory equipment.

However, the picture couldn’t look any different in 2025. With four rounds remaining, Binder sits a lowly 11th in the championship with just 118 points and a single top-five finish. Contrast that to Acosta, now his team-mate at the factory team, who is five positions ahead with 215 points and three Sunday podiums to his name.

Even the South African doesn’t sugarcoat the situation as he sits down with Autosport 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 that 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

*season ongoing

KTM’s off-track struggles

KTM’s off-track struggles in 2024/25 left the team starting the season on the back foot. 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 a lesser extent Enea Bastianini – has benefitted from the upgraded bike, Binder has not yet put together a clean weekend on the upgraded RC16. The 30-year-old has gradually come to terms with a challenging 2025 campaign, but remains confident that he and KTM can find 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 troubles stem from a lack of front-end grip as well as rear tyre vibration, a problem that has 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.”

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 appeared to make a major breakthrough in the Misano test as he allegedly returned to last year’s GP24 with a 2025 engine. The same test also offered other riders a chance to try new parts, and Binder believes those 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

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

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 0.158s 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 did adapt 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 down 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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– The Autosport.com Team