Following in Aegerter’s footsteps: How Alessandro Binder is planning his career

Alessandro Binder is one of Switzerland’s current rising stars. After two years (2024 and 2025) in the Northern Talent Cup (NTC) – which has been renamed the Moto4 Northern Cup this year – he initially felt that the Moto3 route no longer offered a viable path forward and switched to the Yamaha R3 World Cup, which forms part of the Superbike World Championship.

His debut race at the Balaton Park Circuit went very well. In the first race, the 17-year-old from Mellingen finished third on the podium; in the second race, he narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing fourth by just over two tenths of a second. He then finished sixth twice at Aragón, and most recently at Donington, after finishing eighth on Saturday, he failed to finish the race the following day after crashing whilst in second place on the final lap. With three race weekends still to go, the teenager has slipped to seventh in the overall standings.

Alessandro Binder was introduced to motorcycling by his father, who also used to race motorbikes. After attending the MotoGP at Mugello in 2019, he was so captivated that he took part in a taster session for the German ADAC Mini Bike Cup in Ettlingen that very same year. In 2020, he joined the entry-level series and, just one year later, finished third overall.

He then spent two years in Italy competing in the MiniGP series and the Northern Talent Cup. As he felt he could not progress any further on the Moto3 path, particularly from a financial point of view, he now aims to move up to the World Sportbike Championship via the R3 World Cup next year. Via this detour, he aims to make his way back into the GP paddock via the Moto3 World Championship, which is set to be reformed from 2028 and will then also feature standardised motorcycles. “That would be my ideal scenario: from the World Sportbike Championship to the Moto3 World Championship,” he told SPEEDWEEK.com. He added: “If that doesn’t work out, then I’d also try to work my way up through the Superbike paddock.”

Following his promising start to the 2026 season, he was immediately somewhat euphoric, talking about his season’s goal of winning the title and the associated guaranteed starting place in the 2027 Sportbike World Championship – but that will require more than just building on his performance in Hungary. After the first three rounds, he trails the overall leader, Xarly Mendez from the Dominican Republic, by 31 points. On the other hand, it’s only half-way through the season.

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