Life is not all about work – and for Brad Binder, that means it isn’t all about Red Bull KTM, a motorbike, two wheels, taming 1000cc, a track and chasing glory around the world in MotoGP.
“I’ve had a really cool year,” said the 28-year-old about his personal life in 2024 in an interview with Independent Media this week.
“I got married at the end of last year, and now I am expecting a child in April. So yeah, super exciting for me...
“I don’t think it will make much difference to me, to be honest,” he continued, regarding becoming a father next year.
“I have a super wife, and she can continue as normal at home. For sure, many things will change.
“It will be very different, but it’s a challenge and something I’m really excited about, and I’m looking forward to it.”
With that most important aspect of his life on solid ground, Binder has the capacity to do some introspection regarding the other persona that defines him – the professional motorcycle rider that has ambitions to claim podiums and win many Grand Prix.
In that area, Binder and KTM will agree that they had an underwhelming 2024.
Although he managed to finish fifth in the riders championship, he did so after claiming only one podium – at the season-opening Qatar – three less than 2023.
Binder collected 217 points in the process, 76 points less and one position worse off than what he achieved the previous year.
There is no doubt that after that performance, there was a massive expectation that team and rider would go one better this year.
Instead, they battled to make an impression this time around, seemingly falling behind the imperious Ducatis, who once again ruled supreme.
“Looking back at it, it was a really tough year,” Binder admitted about this past season.
“They came with some massive challenges, which were really difficult to try and pinpoint what we needed to do to improve throughout the season.
“The biggest thing for us was our competitors seemed to make a step forward. We also made a step forward, just not quite as big.
“It made it really challenging because you’ve gone from fighting for the podium most weekends, to all of a sudden, you can’t quite crack the top five.
“Of course I expect more, the team expects more, KTM wants more.
“It’s just always a little bit tricky in these situations. I think we definitely handled it quite well.
“To finish fifth in the world championship was great, but of course, we all want more.”
KTM’s on-track struggles have been compounded by serious financial woes.
Earlier this year, the Austrian company entered self-administration to avoid bankruptcy.
Despite that threat, Binder expressed confidence that the team would never capitulate in its ambitions.
Indeed, they are already hard at work preparing for the 2025 racing calendar, which starts in early March.
Binder is enjoying some time off back in the country, and will begin his contribution to the next campaign early next year.
“Things carry on as normal, firstly,” said Binder about the 2025 season.
“We’ve got our test team still testing. We’ve got everyone at the workshop putting in the hours, trying to build the best bike motorcycle possible.
“When we get to Sepang in February, that is when we first get to roll out and really see where we are compared to our competitors.
“I think it’s super clear, especially to the engineers, what they need to change and what I, as the rider, needs to change.
“There’s a few small aspects that once we put them together, hopefully we can really make it click and start to perform a little bit better; and especially compete for those podiums and victories again, that would be awesome,” he concluded. | Independent Media Sport