Brad praised for his best MotoGP seasons to date

The Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain was packed on what was a sunny Saturday recently for the last MotoGP Sprint of the season and the finale to an intense period of races that has seen the championship visit Indonesia, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Qatar in the past six weeks.

The crowds returned in force and packed the speedway setting of the Circuito Ricardo Tormo for the day’s Grand Prix races and the last flurry of 27 laps of the campaign.

Jack Miller and Krugersdorp’s Brad Binder both started from the first and second rows of the grid and were enthused by their speed through qualification as well as the South African’s competitiveness in the sprint, which saw #33 cross the line just 0.190 of a second from the win.

On race day both sliced to the front and were running 1 and 2 for an early phase. Brad then ran wide into turn 11 and then had to make some forceful moves to recover ground to fourth; just 2.3 seconds from the winner by the end and was awarded third spot due to a tire pressure infringement by another rider.

Jack had taken over control of the race with his teammate’s error but then made his misjudgment several laps later into the same section of the layout and crashed.

About his performance on the day, Brad said, “A third place is a third place, even if we didn’t go to the podium! I gave away a couple of podiums this year, so I know it’s not fun. Anyway, quite cool to finish in third after coming close. I took an unneeded long lap but did well to save the crash because the front tyre had been cooling down. A tricky day. I tried to fight my way back through but had no rear tire left at the end. We won two sprints this year but it would have been good to sign off with a main victory. We just need a little bit more in this off-season to fight. Thanks to all my crew. We’ve made a big step this year and there’s more to come.”

Red Bull KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti added, “It was a great season in that we improved the bike, and the riders put themselves in a position where they could change styles to suit it. It was a very intense calendar and, overall, we’re happy with fourth in the championship with Brad and second in constructors but this is just a step. I was impressed by how much we could improve in just one season, especially qualifying, and we know there is a little bit more to do if we want the championship. Third place was good on the day after leading the race. We can see the level of this category: just one little thing can change the results. So, we have to put everything together lap-by-lap to achieve the target. It’s difficult but we recovered a lot this year. We will try again in 2024 and we will keep the focus.”

However, the last official bout of MotoGP action in 2023 concluded in Valencia as the one-day International Road-Racing Teams Association (IRTA) test allowed teams and riders to try new parts and ideas well ahead of the 2024 season.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ploughed through an aerodynamic and electronic test program and ended the session with both riders in the top nine of the fastest lap times.

Brad pushed hard at a time attack and ranked second after sitting around the top 10 for most of the day with his fifth effort of the test.

He concluded, “We tried a few different things with aero, some exhausts. We didn’t have anything big or radical but we learned a lot about what we did use, and that’s the most important thing. We played with some electronics to try and put the bike a bit more ‘in our hands’ and that was cool but there is still some room to work. Everything was pretty much the first starting point towards the next test in Malaysia.”

As the season came to an end, Brad’s fourth place in the championship for 2023 is said to be his best position yet in his fourth season in the premier class and an improvement over the sixth place posted in 2022 and 2021.