Brad Binder admits he’s one of the worst riders on the MotoGP grid in one area

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Brad Binder finished 10th in Sunday’s German Grand Prix, having lost a position to fellow KTM rider Enea Bastianini.

Binder continued the trend of making up ground on race day, having started 16th. While he was helped by retirements ahead, he has now moved forward in all eight races he has finished this season.

Still, the South African was disappointed to lose out to Bastianini, who has become his main point of reference. Teammate Pedro Acosta remains in a league of his own, while Maverick Vinales is lacking fitness and motivation at the back of the field.

Will Brad Binder be on the MotoGP grid in 2027?

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Brad Binder knows he’s always near the top of tyre-wear leaderboard

Binder thought he was losing power or had run out of fuel when his pace sharply dropped during the race. As it turned out, he had simply exhausted the rear tyre.

The South African lapped in the high 1:21s/low 1:22s for the first two-thirds of the race, but in the final five laps he regressed into the 1:23s.

Binder admits that he’s been one of the weakest riders on the grid in terms of tyre management for years. With the same equipment, Bastianini was still lapping in the mid-22s in the closing stages.

“I know from all the years I’m hard on the rear tyre,” he said, via Crash. “I’ve always got the highest wear on the rear. If not the highest, close to.

“It’s a battle that I’ve been winning for years that I don’t want to. When Bastianini came past, I could see he had a lot more rubber.”

In tandem with his tyre-wear frustrations, Binder has ‘never been a great qualifier’ – by his own admission.

He’s unable to maximise the bike’s potential over one lap (as evidenced by his 33-race streak of trailing Acosta) or sustain his pace for a full race, a wicked combination.

One can perhaps understand, on that basis, why KTM have signed two new factory riders for 2027. A move to satellite team Tech3, on a manufacturer contract or otherwise, looks unlikely.