Make no mistake, I think Binder is an excellent rider. I just don't think he is championship caliber or as good as
@Saffa thinks he is.
Now it is obviously hard to evaluate riders, given the different machinery all are on. Next year though, Binder will have, on paper at least his toughest competition that he has ever had on the same bike. If he pants both Mav and Bastiannini over the season then it helps solidify his case as a top 5 rider. But next year despite there only being 3 current spec Ducati's on the grid could be harder to finish in the top 5. Next year the top 2, unless Ducati scores the biggest of own goals should be Pecco and MM. Then guys hunting in that 3-5 range outside of Brad would be Acosta, Martin, DiGi. Throw Fabio in there as well, as someone who is without a doubt top 5 rated in terms of talent.
Acosta would have beaten him in the championship he he was fit to race at Phillip Island GP. That was his own fault of course but Acosta having the front fairing ripped of his bike on Saturday probably cost him the 3 or so points he needed to have more points this year than Binder. Again, you could argue that was an Acosta mistake, but there is some serious amount of bad luck involved to rip off the entire front fairing. I think 99% of the time both Marquez and Acosta would have been fine with that level of contact.
Binder and Mir (at his best) are similar in the way that they might not get the most wins or podiums but there ability (before Mir went to Honda) to keep the bike shiny side up, over the entire season nets them a respectable amount of points while others are throwing away points pushing too hard. It's a smart strategy that collects points for the team and in Mir's case for a world championship.
The big question for next year, for all KTM riders not just Brad is what kind of step will KTM make? I think the proof is in the pudding that the current spec of the KTM was better than the GP23, as Pirro pointed out, the GP23 being designed for the old tyre probably confirms that when put together with the standings. I don't expect the KTM to be better than the new Ducati, I doubt anyone does but can it be better than the GP24? And on that where does Aprilia fit into the ranking? This year, the KTM and Aprilia seemed pretty close with the slight edge to the KTM over the season. The Aprilia had circuits it liked and was better at than the KTM but I think most of the year the pendulum swung the way of KTM.
| Alex Marquez | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Gresini contract, end of 2026 |
| Maverick Vinales | Red Bull KTM Tech3 | 'Multi-year contract' |
| Enea Bastianini | Red Bull KTM Tech3 | 'Multi-year contract' |
| Marc Marquez | Ducati Lenovo Team | End of 2026 |
| Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo Team | End of 2026 |
| Pedro Acosta | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 'Multi-year contract' |
| Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | End of 2026 |
| Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | End of 2026 |
| Alex Rins | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | End of 2026 |
| Jorge Martin | Aprilia Racing | 'Multi-year contract' |
| Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia Racing | 'Multi-year contract' |
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| Ai Ogura | Trackhouse Racing | End of 2026 |
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| Fabio di Giannantonio | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | Ducati contract, 2025 and 2026 |
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Piss poor copy and paste job by me but these are the guys who should be fighting it out for the top 10 next year.
Bolded and underlined are for me the guys who no one else will likely be able to close to given the machinery.
Bolded and italics are guys who regardless of machinery should probably be fighting for top 5.
Bolded only are guys who talent wise should be fighting for top 5 but are on machines that need to improve.
The non bolded guys are ones I see as not having top 5 talent but with the right machinery for them and wrong machinery for others could be dark horses for the top 5 but I expect to be in and around the top 10.
But we will see.
I have nothing against Brad for the record, I just don't rate him as a couple of others do. I also think the current KTM is better than it is being given credit for. It isn't a championship winning bike at the moment but it isn't because it isn't an excellent bike but because the GP24 might be the best GP bike ever built.
