Why Brad Binder has the cojones to become a MotoGP champion

Full commitment: it wasn’t just the victory but its fearless execution that earned Binder respect. Picture: REUTERSBrad Binder’s words, told to me in a December interview while he was back home in SA, stuck in my head as I watched the closing laps of last Sunday’s Czech MotoGP in Brno.

Having qualified seventh, the Red Bull KTM rider was chasing down race leader Franco Morbidelli’s Petronas Yamaha after picking off one rider after another as he made his way to the front. But that, as I was reminded this past Sunday, isn’t how Brad thinks and the kid apparently has no fear. He kept pushing that KTM to its twitching and sliding limits, seemingly always just on the edge of disaster — and with his last two races still fresh in the memory.

But things like that apparently don’t get inside Brad’s head. Past disappointments are consigned to the recycling bin and it’s all about the next target; the rider ahead has to be passed. It’s the way champions think, and Brad had already proven his big-match temperament by winning the 2016 Moto3 title and finishing runner-up in last year’s Moto2 championship.

It’s his rookie season and more mistakes are likely to follow, but he has set his marker as a proven race winner and, more importantly, a fearless mindset.

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