The South African rider started the season strong in Qatar, getting two podium finishes in the sprint and grand prix races. But since then, he hasn’t made it back to the podium.
Things didn’t go well for him in America. He tried different adjustments to his bike, but they didn’t work, and he couldn’t get past the first qualifying session. In the grand prix, he only managed to finish ninth.
But at Jerez, a crash during practice led him to the first qualifying session. Despite this setback, Binder feels like changes made to the front of his RC16 bike have made a big difference.
He said, “Today has been really good. We changed something on the front end of the bike in the morning for the second run and it felt like I had my bike back. I had the confidence again with the front end in braking and entry. That was awesome. I was really fast the whole afternoon, I felt really good.”
But during a push for a strong lap, he crashed. He explained, “I just got caught out by the wind coming in hotter than the previous lap and clearly too much. Bit unlucky because of that.”
When asked about the changes, he said, “I don’t know exactly but something with the front fork. It just made me a lot more comfortable.”
Despite the crash, Binder feels positive about his performance. He said, “To be honest, the best day I’ve had all year apart from the last run. It’s the first time I’ve felt this good in a long time and it’s unfortunate that I bailed because it cost us a spot in Q2.”
He revealed that his ideal lap time was much quicker than what he achieved, showing optimism for the upcoming races.
Binder had a foot injury before the Americas GP and considers himself lucky to walk away without serious harm from the Jerez crash. He said, “I’m really lucky. When I crashed there [Turn 7] I slid for a long time and slid pretty square, and then I had a few roly-polies when I had already slowed down. Yeah, when I stood up I was more lucky than I could have been.”
