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With the news this weekend that Red Bull KTM rider Brad Binder will remain with the Austrian manufacturer until at least the end of the 2024 season, it marks the second long-term deal signed by current riders. The South African joins eight-time world champion Marc Marquez in securing his future for longer than the usual two-year period, as Marquez too is set to remain with Repsol Honda until at least 2024.
That puts him at odds with the established trend in MotoGP, where most of his rivals are on two-year deals that sync together to ensure that there are always factory options available to shuffle through.
Both Marquez’s and Binder’s deals will now keep them out of the next round of musical chairs at a time when many of their rivals will be in a different position. But while it presents job security to be linked longer-term with a team, it’s a double-edged sword – and one that Suzuki’s reigning world champion Joan Mir says he’s not too keen to commit to just yet.
“Well, it seems every time the contracts start earlier and earlier,” he joked when asked by the Race for his reaction to Binder’s bumper deal. “And this is really, really far away, 2024.
“But yeah, it is a strategy to have your rider signed for those years and then if the rider is happy is always a strategy to have in consideration, because it’s always good, you are more calm and you just focus on riding.
“But it’s true that it’s also unpredictable, because you don’t know if the bike will be competitive, not in ‘23 and ‘24, you don’t know it. So it’s always – even next year… you have that risk, no?
“So, yeah, for us we [Suzuki and I] are not talking at the moment, we will do it more in the future. But at the moment I have to say that I’m happy here.”
The current championship leader Fabio Quartararo was even more certain in his thinking, saying in today’s pre-event press conference at the Catalan Grand Prix that it’s simply not something he has ever thought about when asked by The Race.
“At the moment, I’m focused on the present,” insisted the factory Yamaha rider. “The future will come, but I’m not doing a bad job.
“I have a contract for next year and it’s something that I’ll think about – but right now I’m enjoying myself and not focusing on it at all.”
Given the strength of opposition to the long deal signed by Binder and Marquez, it’s perhaps testament to the strength that the KTM rider feels in his upbringing through its talent development program that he’s got the polar opposite view to his rivals.
Set to be a KTM rider for at least a decade by the time his new deal expires, he says that the benefits far outweigh the negatives for him.
“This is the plan, this is where I wanted to be,” he said when asked by The Race. “I’ve been a KTM boy for many, many years already and I see first-hand how hard these guys are and how determined they are to get to the top.
“We’ve obviously both got the same goal, and I feel like together we can achieve something great. So I’m very honoured to have got a long-term deal with them, and I’m super excited to see what the future brings.”
It might not be a view that echoes all the way through the KTM camp, though, with Binder’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira refusing to be drawn out on his own future plans with the team beyond his current contract situation.
“The contract situation is always about who is moving first,” said the Portuguese rider, “then the [signing] season starts.
“I signed a two-year deal for 2021 and 2022, and after that we will see.”
And in reality, given the ultra-competitive nature of modern MotoGP and the short careers that top athletes enjoy, the reality is that it’s unlikely we’re going to see people signed up to longer deals in the future.
It works the other way too, with Marquez’s ongoing injury woes an example of how a manufacturer is taking a gamble by signing such an extensive deal with a rider who is currently not able to perform at his full capacity.
