Brad Binder and Red Bull KTM team-mate Jack Miller show off their machines for the 2023 MotoGP season. Picture: KTM
South Africa’s MotoGP star Brad Binder believes this season will be his best chance yet at a shot at the world title
The Red Bull KTM rider has been riding in the premier class since 2020, recording an 11th and two sixth places in the world championship in his first three seasons. The 27-year-old Binder has won two MotoGP races and finished runner-up twice.
“It has felt like a long off-season already so I’m more than excited to get back to the track and to get started again,” Binder said on Thursday after the unveiling for this season’s KTM RC16 machine.
The 21-race 2023 season starts on 26 March in Portugal, but before then, the team will head to Malaysia in February and then to Portugal in March for testing.
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“My fourth year in the class and I feel like our best chance so far to really achieve something will be in 2023. We’re ready to go, so let’s get to Sepang and see what those first days bring us,” added Binder, the 2016 Moto3 world champion.
Joining Binder at Red Bull KTM this season is Australian Jack Miller, who replaces Miguel Oliveira. Riding a Ducati, 28-year-old Miller pipped Binder by one point last season to finish fifth in the world title standings.
This will be Miller’s ninth season in the premier since making his debut in 2015. The Aussie has won four races and has stood on the podium a total of 22 times.
“Joining up with the KTM family again it is all starting to feel rather ‘real’ now,” Miller, who rode for KTM in the 125cc class in 2011 and then again in the Moto3 class in 2014, said.
“It’s amazing to be back here at KTM and to be catching up with everybody; it’s a special little taste before we get down to action in Malaysia.”
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KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer is confident that Binder and Miller are the right combination to drive the team in their quest for their maiden MotoGP rider title.
“I feel super-confident with the two boys we have onboard. I feel that Brad and Jack are both different but, at the end of the day, both similar,” said Beirer.
“They are pushing very hard and that is exactly what we need.”
Brad Binder’s younger brother Darryn Binder, who spent one season in MotoGP riding a Yamaha in 2022, will turn out for the Liqui Moly Husqvarna-backed Intact GP team in Moto2 this year.