In a season filled with drama, one statistic stands out as the most startling anomaly of the 2025 MotoGP campaign: 22-0. That is the definitive qualifying scoreline between KTM factory teammates Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder. Forty-two rounds into his premier class career, Acosta has yet to be bested on a Saturday by the man on the other side of the garage.
This was the only full-season “whitewash” on the grid. While Fabio Quartararo slipped up once against Alex Rins, and other teammates traded blows or faced rotation riders, the Acosta-Binder dynamic was entirely one-sided.
If you had predicted a 22-0 drubbing before the lights went out in Qatar, few would have believed you. Yes, Acosta is the younger, faster prodigy, but Binder has never been a “disaster” over a single lap. Until 2025, that is.
Context: Binder was never a slouch
Historically, Binder has been a Sunday specialist, but he held his ground on Saturdays against respectable benchmarks like Pol Espargaro, Miguel Oliveira, and Jack Miller. None of these riders treated qualifying as an afterthought—Miller, in particular, was renowned for his one-lap pace.
Yet, from 2021 to 2024, Binder managed a combined qualifying head-to-head record of 45-47 against his teammates. He was competitive enough to keep his head above water, facilitating four consecutive top-six championship finishes. In fact, prior to 2025, Binder’s average gap to his teammates in qualifying sessions they both contested was actually 0.018s in his favor.
The 2025 season, however, was a monumental statistical outlier. The gap exploded from being 0.250s faster than Miller in 2024 to being 0.542s slower than Acosta in 2025.
The Technical Disconnect
How does a rider who has consistently held his own for five years suddenly get torched? The answer lies in a fundamental mismatch between Binder’s riding DNA and the 2025 iteration of the KTM RC16.
“I rely a lot on the rear wheel,” Binder admitted during the season finale. “Braking, entering, also on throttle. And I don’t feel the hook-up that I normally need.”
Binder’s style involves aggressive braking and rear-steering, but the new RC16 demanded a different approach—one that Acosta naturally possesses. “Pedro pulls a lot less pressure [on the brake] but keeps the bike completely square… two wheels. I just rely on the one wheel,” Binder explained.
The South African spent the season chasing a setup that would allow him to load the front tyre, only to find that reverting to his old settings caused him to lose the front entirely. “I need to try to ride his style a little bit,” Binder conceded. “More soft on the brake, more rolling.”
Acosta’s Brutal Assessment
Perhaps the most alarming aspect for Binder is Acosta’s own evaluation of the season. The young Spaniard does not view the 22-0 record as a badge of honor, but rather a baseline he needs to exceed.
“To be 20-0 [at the time of the quote] with your teammate doesn’t mean you’re making good qualifyings!” Acosta insisted. “It’s not my strong point… if one day I want to fight for a championship, I need extra from this.”
Acosta’s suggestion that he hasn’t even maximized his grid positions implies that the whitewash says more about Binder’s struggles than Acosta’s perfection.
Binder’s theory regarding the technical mismatch rings true; a rider of his caliber doesn’t lose half a second of pure pace overnight without a mechanical disconnect. However, the reality of the scoreboard is harsh.
Honesty dictates that any chance of Binder usurping Acosta as KTM’s leading light in 2026 is likely gone. The goal now is recovery. Unlocking his qualifying pace on this new generation of bike is essential—not just to compete, but to rebuild a reputation that was comprehensively dismantled in 2025.
