Brad Binder was the best KTM rider in the MotoGP test held yesterday in Jerez. There were no significant updates on the RC16, but there was a lot of work done by the Red Bull KTM rider, who was 0.234s slower than the leader, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46/Ducati).
The South African summed up the day in Jerez: ‘It was pretty cool. I started off the morning pretty much how we finished off in the race. We didn’t have much stuff to be honest – we had a full aero package, which was quite cool. As always with aero stuff, it was just to collect as much information as possible to then try and bring the next updates. There are some parts that are pretty good with the new one, others we’re missing a little bit – we are wheeling a little bit more’.
According to Binder, there were significant improvements in a particular area: ‘One good improvement we’ve made in this test was just setting stuff with the rear shock, we managed to get the bike a little bit more stable, which was cool’.
Regarding the rear section of the bike with more aerodynamic elements that other KTM riders used, the #33 stated: ‘I honestly don’t know. We got a little update for Portimão and we’ve all ben using the one with more on it. But maybe they did a back check. It changes a little bit your feeling in the braking areas, just like the amount of rear contact you have, that’s where that area touches. But of course when you’re on throttle it does the opposite. So it’s always a little bit of a trade off’.
As for the front-end chatter, Binder explained that this aspect was not a priority in this test: ‘Especially on Sunday we had a lot of chatter in the race. And in the test when we had more laps on, we also had it. But we were so busy working in other areas that wasn’t our main priority. We did try something at the end which seems to help us a little bit. As always, it’s just trying to collect as much information as possible, and then the guys can go home and bring the next step’.