Marco Bezzecchi
Phil Marron believes Brad Binder does not need to make “huge steps” to turn his poor start to the 2026 MotoGP season around, as the KTM ace already has lots of potential.
Marron started working with Binder as his crew chief this term, as KTM decided that the 30-year-old required a fresh face sat next to him in the garage following the worst season of his MotoGP career so far. He only sealed 11th in the 2025 riders’ championship with 155 points.
Not since Binder’s rookie season in 2020 had he ranked as lowly in the standings as he did in 2025. Last year also marked the first time in his premier class career that Binder failed to get a single Grand Prix podium in a season, and 2026 is already shaping up to be a difficult year.
Binder sits just 12th in the standings after the first three rounds of the 2026 MotoGP season with 17 points to his name. Factory KTM teammate Pedro Acosta won the Sprint in Thailand during round one, has two Grand Prix podiums and sits third in the standings with 60 points.
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Phil Marron thinks Brad Binder must improve his qualifying and cornering consistency
Acosta won the Buriram Sprint after Marc Marquez’s penalty for forcing the KTM rider wide when taking the lead on the penultimate lap. KTM Tech3 rider Enea Bastianini also boasts a Sprint podium in 2026, as he got P3 after Acosta’s penalty for illegal tyre pressures at COTA.
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Binder had his best weekend so far this term in Thailand, with P6 in the Sprint and P7 in the Grand Prix. He has not finished higher than P12 in any other race so far. But Marron believes more is possible if Binder improves his qualifying performances and cornering consistency.
“We’ve only had three events, I can’t say yet,” Marron told SPEEDWEEK about Binder’s main difficulties. “I can’t pinpoint one thing.”
Marron continued, regarding what Binder needs to work on: “It’s about finding consistency. We also need to make our package reproducible. He needs to have confidence in the bike in every corner.
“We don’t need to make any huge steps. The level is so high that it is just a matter of details.
“In Buriram, we had bad luck in qualifying. We had a small technical problem that cost us the chance to be at least one row further up the grid.
“We need to make sure we always give our best in qualifying. Brad is a Sunday rider, he loves racing. If we do a good job in qualifying, the rest will follow.”
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Binder qualified P11 in Thailand, but only Bastianini was then slower than the South African during Q1 in Brazil. He also failed to advance from Q1 in the United States, where only Jack Miller of Pramac, Franco Morbidelli of VR46 and Alex Rins of Yamaha were slower than him.
KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer admits that Binder’s early form in 2026 is “frustrating”, as well, as Acosta has shown what the RC16 is capable of. Beirer also feels Binder needs to change his braking style, as his trademark way of sliding the rear tyre is no longer effective.
Acosta was the best KTM rider during qualifying in Thailand with P6, Brazil with P9 and the USA with P3. The Spaniard was also only 0.349s slower than VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio as he scored pole position at COTA, where Bastianini also made it into Q2 for Tech3 in P12.
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