Binder’s wait is finally over
HISTORY: FIRST SA RIDER EVER TO START IN A MOTOGP
Softly, softly, catchee monkey. That will be South African Brad Binder’s modus operandi this weekend, when he is set to become the first South African rider ever to start in a MotoGP.
Binder, 24, will line up his factory Red Bull KTM for this year’s opening MotoGP round at the Spanish Jerez circuit tomorrow.
He will be accompanied by Portuguese racer Miguel Oliveira in the Red Bull KTM team, with Italian Danilo Petrucci and Spaniard Iker Lecuona taking to the track for the satellite Red Bull KTM Tech 3 equipe.
With the first 11 MotoGP events of the year having been cancelled or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the weekend’s spectator-free race is expected to enjoy a massive global television audience.
Binder, who has been part of the Red Bull KTM family since 2015 and clinched the 2016 Moto3 World Championship title for the team, is not unaware of the weekend’s magnitude.
However, he is realistic about his, and the Red Bull KTM team’s expectations.
“I am incredibly excited about my first MotoGP start, but my main goal will be to finish the race and learn a lot.
“After that, we can take stock, see where we are, and build from there,” he said.
He said that the jump from the Moto2 category, where he raced last year, to the elite MotoGP class, is huge.
“The straights are all a lot shorter, and riding the bike is a lot more physical than used to be the case in Moto2. It would have been easier if the season had started in March, but the situation is what it is, and I will simply have to adapt to new circumstances,” Binder added.
The South African, who has been signed for the Red Bull KTM team until the end of 2021, has been battling with the MotoGP machine’s braking and the heat at the Spanish circuit, where track temperatures have hit in excess of 50°C during testing.
He did get in a long run though, logging a quickest effort of 13th in the afternoon session.