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Darryn Binder’s first-ever MotoGP race was an extremely contrasting performance.
On the one hand, he finished 16th, so close to scoring a point and finishing as the top rookie, even though in testing he’d looked well adrift of the pack and unlikely to challenge those graduating from Moto2 (Binder himself was stepping up directly from Moto3) any time soon.
On the other hand, he played up to his reputation as a wild rider and potential liability by irritating fellow rookie Remy Gardner – who said Binder’s riding was “all over the shop” and “a bit of a disaster”.
Binder has faced a lot of grief – understandable but very substantial, and also on this very website – about bypassing Moto2 and joining MotoGP, especially as his record in seven seasons in the lightweight class (one win, best championship finish of seventh, a reputation for being incident-prone) didn’t exactly scream ‘premier-class material’.
In such circumstances and given that he outperformed expectations in Qatar, it would’ve been only natural for Binder to turn up his nose at the latest line of criticism. To his credit, it really, really doesn’t sound like he did.
“Remy is a really nice guy – we were in the same hotel in Qatar and we spoke a couple of times in the morning before we left the hotel and stuff,” Binder said of Gardner. “We have a normal relationship, myself and him.
“In the media scrum after the race, people said that Remy wasn’t happy with me – so when I finished that I went and spoke to him, and understood his perspective of what I was doing wrong. The only way I could understand is by somebody telling me.
“There was no specific incident where, at least from what I understood from the chat, we didn’t have contact or anything. It was just the way that, if I would run wide and cut back into the line – like we’ve seen before with Pol Espargaro and I think it was [Johann] Zarco [at Brno in 2020] and maybe even Miguel [Oliveira] once in Austria [in 2020], if you go wide and cut back and somebody’s there it can be really costly.
“So, I think that was what he was trying to say – in Moto3 maybe you cut back and it’s not such a big deal, but in MotoGP when these bikes are going so fast and stuff, it can be really costly.
“I understand and obviously I’m going to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen again and be more clean, and obviously you need to leave more room.”
“We had a nice conversation, it was OK,” Gardner said. “In the end he basically said the bike is riding him more than he’s riding the bike – and I said ‘well, yeah, I could see’.
“I just said, ‘look, in the future, if you run wide or something, if you can’t ride the bike properly, just go that half a second less’ – I think for his sake as well, to build on actually how to go faster, it’s probably a good idea to do that.”
That might sound on the harsh side from the reigning Moto2 champion, but Gardner also stressed it was a “good chat” and went as far as to say that it was “quite noble of him [Binder] to listen”.
Actions, of course, speak louder than words, so it remains to be seen whether Binder’s openness to feedback translates to his riding style. But given a reputation for being wild and often needlessly aggressive that has followed the South African from the lightweight class, it has to be encouraging for his MotoGP peers to hear how he’s approaching the season.
“Obviously I don’t want to continue this reputation. I was riding maybe a little bit like Moto3 still,” said Binder.
“I’m going to take everything that’s been said to me into consideration and try to put it into action [at Mandalika] this weekend. I don’t want to continue this reputation, I want to ride safe and enjoy racing against other guys.
“Now I’m starting to understand more how to ride the bike and it was the first race and you know a race is very different to practice, so I think when I got into the race mode and was fighting against those other guys, obviously I’m just trying to be the best rookie and I wanted a point, 100 percent, it was my first race, it would’ve been nice.
“But yeah, [I will look to] stay more calm, stay in control and keep everything clean and tidy.”
For a rookie who’s been under fire and remains that way despite springing a surprise on his debut, it is a very welcome stance – and forms part of a very positive first impression alongside what is genuinely competitive pace.
Not even Binder was fully confident he’d be in the mix with his four fellow rookies right away given the size of the step he was making. “I feel like I knew I could be close to them [the other rookies], especially in the beginning. I feel like maybe people expected me to do worse than what I did, so in a sense it’s nice that I was there.
“But I think what’s coming is we’re all going to start making steps forward now, we’re all learning, we’ve all got that first race under our belt, I feel like we’re all going to make steps at different times.
“Maybe this weekend somebody makes a good step forward, but that’s just how it is, each person has got to keep doing his own work, and my step might come this weekend or maybe next weekend, you know? We’re just going to have to see, keep chipping away at it.”
Binder still has to prove he truly merits a place in MotoGP. But his initial pace, his professed mindset and his openness are indicative of a rider who can be a genuine asset to the premier class.
