Brad Binder believes new KTM bike can break Ducati dominance

Brad Binder reckons the new KTM bike is good enough to break Ducati’s dominance of MotoGP, but the biggest challenge has been getting to grips with the new machine.

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team rider is ninth on the championship standings on 30 points, less than half of the 64 garnered by Italian leader Marco Bezzecchi of Mooney VR 46 on Ducati.

Five of the top eight riders are on Ducatis, with Spaniard Alex Rins on a Honda lying third, his countryman Maverick Viñales on an Aprilia fourth and Frenchman Fabio Quartararo on a Yamaha in seventh.

Binder, who finished sixth in the Portuguese season opener, was unable to get a point in Argentina and ended 13th at the Americas last weekend.

“I think we’re going to be in for a really good season,” said the South African speed ace who returns to action at the Spanish GP next weekend.

“I’m really happy with the way the bike’s working at the moment. We’re much closer to our competitors and I honestly believe, with the way the bike is at the minute, I can actually do something and I can really fight to be on the podiums and hopefully score some more race wins this season.”

But the improvement in the KTM meant recalibrating himself to the bike.

“There’s always that limit that when everything gets more competitive and the bike is more on the edge of course, it’s easier to make mistakes so I need to understand a little bit better where the limits are on this bike because we have made a couple mistakes this season.”

Binder slid off the track during the Americas and crashed in Argentina.

“Unfortunately I got wiped out of one race and this other race was my first crash since this time last year. So I don’t really make too many mistakes, but I’m hoping my one-per-season is out the way and from here we can just try to stay competitive.”

But Binder admitted the Ducati dominance had sometimes made it difficult to distinguish if he was racing man or machine.

“That’s quite a tricky question, because sometimes you come in and it’s like the first eight places are all the Ducati and then it was the rest of us, almost.

“So it’s been tricky the last season, especially, because they’ve made such a big step with their motorbike that it didn’t seem to matter who was on top of it. They were strong straight away.

“And yeah, for me, the big thing going forward is that, you know, it doesn’t matter who they are or what they are, you just want to win. You have 22 competitors out there and your goal is to beat every single one of them,” added Binder, who has learnt to enjoy the new Saturday sprint races.

“It’s made things extremely exciting, especially for the fans and the spectators.

“For us riders it’s a little bit more tricky because to add the sprint race, they’ve really cut down our sessions and our opportunities to work for the race. So by the time we actually go into the sprint race you’re going in a little bit blind. You’re not too sure exactly if you have your setting exactly the way you want it.

“In one way I think it’s fantastic because you almost just need to get on with it and get going. It’s actually worked out really well for me ... I truly believe it actually suits my style a whole lot better than I expected.”

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