South Africa’s Brad Binder on upward trajectory at Red Bull KTM

After getting off to a bit of a rocky start this season with bike troubles, South African MotoGP rider Brad Binder has found his stride and looks to be making his way to the front of the pack. 

The paddock unloads in Austria this weekend after a summer break and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing will be looking to make a second half advance up the leaderboard. 

So far, Spanish brother Marc and Alex Marquez each have a firm grip on the Championship. 

But the South African rider looked more hungry going into the end of the first half of the season, and wouldn’t it be sweet to clinch his first victory in over 4 years this weekend. 

A P6 finish in Spain is the highest Binder’s finish so far but the team has suffered its own tribulations off-track which could have hindered its early season progress. 

The KTM financial woes were brought to the forefront and speculated as one of the main reasons behind the team's inability to deliver a quick and balanced bike for this season. The RC16’s development, particularly, aerodynamics, were supposedly halted because of the financial hole the parent company, KTM AG, had dug itself into. 

Red Bull riders including Binder, Pedro Acosta as well as Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini in Tech 3 Racing may not have been entirely confident when they jumped onto the bike at the start of the season. 

But they’re all astute professionals, and had to put on a brave face. Binder took a couple falls so far this season, even crashing out of 5th position in the Aragon GP at Turn 3 on Sunday. 

Binder said after the race that every time he gains a bit of confidence, the bike lets him down. 

“When I lost it I thought ‘what the hell happened?’ Then I went back to the garage I looked at the data and I had less speed, less front brake and less load on the front tyre.

“So, it’s a little bit tricky because every time I take good confidence with the front and I feel it’s more or less there, it tends to give up on me a little bit,” said Binder. 

“And I was just pretty much trying to be clean, not be stupid, not make mistakes, and when I went sliding off I thought ‘what a waste’. But shit happens,” he added. 

Since Aragon, the South African seemed to have regained some of the confidence, fighting in the middle pack between P11 and P7 during the Italian, Dutch, German, Czech and most recent Austrian Grand Prix. 

The crash at Aragon highlighted the not-so-reliable front end the RC16 has this season but the team said it planned on using the summer break to upgrade the engine and aerodynamics ahead of their home race. 

KTM riders will have a pile of pressure on their shoulders going into Sunday’s main race.