KTM “needs big understanding” before improving its MotoGP bike

Brad Binder thinks RC16 needs just “small steps”

Brad Binder, KTM Factory Racing, 2024 Barcelona MotoGP test
Brad Binder, KTM Factory Racing, 2024 Barcelona MotoGP test
© Gold and Goose

Brad Binder doesn’t believe KTM’s MotoGP bike needs any radical changes after a lacklustre 2024, but the brand “needs big understanding” first.

Though KTM finished second in the constructors’ standings in 2024, it was some 395 points adrift of all-conquering Ducati as its win drought continued for another year.

Binder only scored two podiums, back at the opening round of the year in Qatar, while Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta totalled nine across sprints and grands prix.

While the future of the KTM MotoGP project remains uncertain amidst its current financial crisis, especially with rumours of a development freeze for 2025 as a result, the new bike appears to already be a step forward from the 2024 machine.

However, following last month’s Barcelona post-season test, Binder suggested KTM was yet to fully understand every problem it had with the 2024 bike.

“Well, I think we need big understanding first,” he said when asked if the KTM needed a major change for 2025.

“Once we understand everything, we can then start to make small steps in each area [which] is what we need.

“It’s not necessarily one big step. It’s literally a tiny bit in braking, a tiny bit in turning, a little bit in drive grip.

“And that’s the only way we’re going to make up the difference.”

Binder says KTM had to be “more radical” with how it set up the bike in 2024, which took time to understand, and believes this was down to Michelin’s ultra-grippy rear tyre.

“I mean, I think this year for some reason we had to really change the balance of our bike and it was always difficult to understand, because when we were playing in our normal windows, our normal area that we change the bike, we weren’t really getting much difference,” he added.

“So, we had to do things much more radical to feel the difference.

“So, for sure that took a bit of time. But now late in the season, everything started to make a little bit more sense.

“To be honest, it’s so difficult to say but I just imagine so [that the rear tyre was the cause].

“We all imagine that it’s got more grip. It definitely has more grip. The thing is, no one ever did a back check between the two [2024 and 2023 tyre], so you could never say ‘hey, that’s it’.

“You couldn’t put your hand on fire and say that’s the difference, because one year to the other you come back, you’re so rusty at the beginning that everything feels different.”

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