Brad Binder furious over Aragon start conditions: “It’s f*cking dangerous”

After qualifying on the inside of the grid for the Aragon MotoGP and falling backwards off the line in the Sprint on Saturday, Brad Binder described the conditions of the starting grid at MotorLand as “f*cking dangerous”.

The MotorLand circuit was resurfaced ahead of the 2024 Aragon MotoGP, a race which was memorable for the difficulties Francesco Bagnaia had getting off the line on the factory Ducati in both the Sprint and Grand Prix from third on the grid – positioned on the same side of the grid as the sixth-place grid slot Binder qualified for in Saturday morning’s Q2.

The South African had a similar experience to Bagnaia last year on the start of the 2025 Sprint, slipping almost to last place on the run to turn one.

Well aware of the identicality of his starting circumstances for Sunday’s Grand Prix to those he faced in the Sprint, Binder was also concerned when looking ahead.

“They need to get those safety cars to do some burnouts, I don’t know what else we’re going to do,” Brad Binder said after the Sprint.

“Firstly, it sucks because you qualify well and you just throw it away; but, secondly, it’s f*cking dangerous because going into turn one I had everyone go around me because they’re arriving 30–40kph faster.

“When you’ve got such a difference in speed, one guy’s braking already and I’m still flat out because I don’t have enough speed to even get to turn one.

“It’s so sketchy.

“Hopefully we can try and figure something out for tomorrow.”

Binder also said that there was some frustration at having finally been able to achieve a decent result in qualifying, only for it to be undone by a poor start.

“Finally I get a good qualifying and I did a rolling burnout to turn one,” Binder said.

“I went back to maybe 16th or 17th, then I passed a few guys in the first couple of sectors, but then your front tyre is absolutely cooked.

“I ended up going off-track in turn 12 trying to make up time.

“Not a good Sprint. I expected something good today but I think that rolling burnout into turn one didn’t do me any favours.”

“Honestly, I had a sick feeling when I came in and saw I was sixth that I’m pretty screwed for the start because anywhere we’ve launched this weekend that’s not on the [racing] line you just spin,” he said.

“I don’t know. It’s not really very good. I kind of wish I’d qualified seventh.”

He said that, knowing how he would struggle to get away from the grid, he and his team had prepared his start strategy with specific consideration for his position on the grid.

“We knew it’s a dirty part of the track and it’s probably going to spin, so we did everything we could: we cut power, we made everything so it wouldn’t spin, and it did anyway,” he said.

“The reality is that, even when I pulled [away] on my sighting lap with not slipping the clutch, just opening the throttle, it spun as well.

“It’s like ice, so I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do [for the Grand Prix].”

Acosta: “This is dangerous”

Binder’s Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Pedro Acosta agreed with the South African that the situation on the grid in Aragon is “dangerous”, and appreciated his own fortune to have qualified fifth – in the centre of the second row – and avoided the worst of what he called a “super-dirty” track surface.

“I was lucky because I was in the centre of the track,” Acosta said of his own start in the Sprint.

“The same as Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] was good [on Saturday] and last year was a disaster. You only have to see how bad was the starts from Pecco [in 2024].

“Don’t get me wrong, but the track was super-dirty from the first day we came here.”

Acosta suggested something similar to Binder: that the safety cars should be used to clean the grid; or that in circumstances like those in Aragon the championship should allow teams to clean their grid slots.

“I know that it’s illegal [to clean the grid], because I remember these things from Valentino [Rossi, in Qatar 2004],” he said, “but in these kind of tracks that are so dirty, maybe the championship should make something that maybe every position – minimum for the first 15 – can clean or put some rubber with the safety car or something because this is dangerous.

“When you are in the back it doesn’t matter because you have three guys behind, but Brad [Binder] had maybe 16. This is not good.

“I think how they clean the track should be better for next year.”

Acosta’s race resulted in a fifth-place finish, his best of the year on a Saturday – this despite front tyre temperature issues in the beginning.

“Was not bad but was not good,” Acosta summarised.

“After the first lap, I recovered 0.8 seconds to Morbidelli and these guys; then I tried to make a pass on Morbidelli and I went wide.

“Then started my nightmare with the overheating, locks, and disaster. I was not able to stop in a single braking, and it was difficult to manage.

“Then, Aldeguer passed me, I go behind, everything takes a bit of cold air and I start to come back again and be like 0.6 seconds faster.

“For this, we have to be positive because tomorrow is another race, is other tyres, are other many things.”

Acosta was confident about his potential on a medium-compound rear tyre for the Grand Prix, having run a soft rear tyre in the Sprint, but he was nonetheless concerned about improving the front end of his RC16.

“Today it’s true that the traction was not bad at all – normally I always complain about this but not today,” he said.

“But we need to think about the front because today I was not able to overtake anyone – I mean anyone, [also] Morbidelli when I came back because I started to have the problems again, the same problems that I was taking about from the beginning of the year. But more or less I understand from where it comes.

“Just, let’s think about tomorrow and let’s improve myself and the bike for tomorrow.”

Quotes gathered by Crash.net MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren.