Now in his fifth MotoGP™ season , the South African was fully expecting to regularly fight with Pecco Bagnaia , Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez in 2024 , after he finished a career best fourth overall in 2023 .
But it hasn ’ t come to pass just yet . KTM has struggled to get to grips with Michelin ’ s new rear tyre compound for this year , with vibration and chattering a common complaint for both Binder and team-mate Jack Miller .
“ I didn ’ t have the pace today , no matter what I tried ,” said Binder back in Italy . I was just a little bit slower than I needed to be . I had the carrot in front of me the whole race with a few guys , but honestly , I could just see them creeping away , and as much as I tried to catch up , it just wasn ’ t really happening .”
Binder ’ s results have been far from disastrous . He sits seventh overall and has finished every Sunday race inside the top ten . There were other heartening moments in the season ’ s first half , like when he led the Sprint in Barcelona before crashing out .
Yet there ’ s no getting away from the fact that results have fallen below expectations , with rookie Pedro Acosta currently one place higher in the classification . “ For some reason this year , we notice that when we go out for the race , on the Sunday in particular , the track is the greenest it is all weekend ( in terms of grip ),” said Binder of the current problems . “ Like , FP1 is much better grip than the race . And one of our big issues is when the grip is not there , we really struggle to make our bike work , we struggle to get the transfer working properly .”
One consolation for Binder is his long-term contract , which runs with KTM until 2026 . The expertise at the Austrian factory ’ s disposal means they will surely fix the issue before long .
“ It ’ s been a long time since I felt like I didn ’ t quite have the speed ,” he said back in Mugello . Binder will be hoping he – and KTM – can reproduce some of the magic that led to his incredible victory at this track in 2021 this weekend .
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