Brad Binder: Phil Marron “full of cool ideas” ahead of new KTM MotoGP partnership

Brad Binder’s decade long partnership with crew chief Andres Madrid came to an end in Sunday’s Valencia MotoGP’s finale.

Madrid has been by Binder’s side since 2015, guiding him from his Moto3 world title through Moto2 and into MotoGP with Red Bull KTM in 2020. 

Together they celebrated KTM’s first premier-class win, another victory the following year, and eleven podiums across five seasons.

But after being KTM’s top rider in the world championship standings from 2021-2024, Binder slipped to eleventh this season.

“Things didn't quite gel this season, for sure and super disappointed to finish the season where I did in the championship,” Binder said of the 2025 campaign.

“I feel like we made some small improvements at the end and I was getting a bit faster. However, still not competitive, so still got some work to do.”

The South African will start a new partnership with ex-Toprak Razgatlioglu WorldSBK crew chief Phil Marron for 2026, when Madrid switches to the Tech3 team and Enea Bastianini.

“I've been working with Andres since 2015. So it's been many, many years, and he's been my right-hand man for the whole time,” Binder said at Valencia on Sunday.

“Whenever things are going well, he's there. When I'm f**king angry, I moan at him! He's like a brother to me. I'm really going to miss Andres, but luckily, he's only going next door, so not too far.

“But I need to say thank you to him for all that he's done for me over the years, for sure. He's been a legend, and I'm definitely going to miss the guy.”

However, Binder is now looking forward to working with Marron, who rejoins the MotoGP paddock after previously being a crew chief for Eugene Laverty at Aspar Ducati.

Marron then moved to WorldSBK with Laverty before joining forces with Razgatlioglu from 2019. The pair took race wins for Kawasaki, then the world title with Yamaha and, for the past two years, with BMW.

Surprisingly, Yamaha elected not to keep the Razgatlioglu-Marron pairing for MotoGP, allowing KTM to snap up the Northern Irishman to try and help revive Binder’s fortunes.

Marron was present in the KTM garage at Valencia ahead of starting work with Binder in Tuesday’s official test.

“I've had a bit of time to chat to Phil over the weekend, but he's just been following a little bit from behind the scenes, meeting all the boys and seeing how everything works and what the idea is for Tuesday “ Binder said.

“He seems like a really, really nice dude. For sure, he seems really excited to jump [back] into the MotoGP paddock. I think he's full of cool ideas. So, I'm looking forward to it.”

Razgatlioglu will work with Bastianini's former crew chief Alberto Giribuola at Pramac Yamaha.