OFFICIAL PROGRAMME · THE SEA CHANGE
“ I think the only rider with a chance to really go to MotoGP™ if the situation was different would be Toprak ”
EXCITING CONTENT
There will always be younger , hungrier , riders coming through to WorldSBK . The current ‘ big three ’ dominating this year will be replaced of course , by people who are already in the championship , or new people from outside of the entire Superbike World . Well , the obvious place to look is the MotoGP™ paddock , mostly from the Moto2 category . Honda ’ s HRC squad had two vastly experienced WorldSBK competitors in their team for the past two years - Bautista and Haslam - but the new look and feel HRC squad features two complete WorldSBK class rookies , and they didn ’ t go looking for them inside any Superbike championship anywhere . Iker Lecuona was a MotoGP™ rider of short duration , but he was picked as an HRC WorldSBK works rider this year . One podium in the bag already … His team-mate Xavi Vierge wasn ’ t even in MotoGP™ , he went straight to WorldSBK from Moto2 .
We asked Iker about this at the Misano round of WorldSBK , where he had a very strong weekend in only his fourth WorldSBK outing . When it was put to him that it looked like MotoGP™ was where a lot of new WorldSBK riders will be coming from he said . “ I agree with this . Finally , I spoke to some riders and I heard some news about riders from MotoGP™ that are thinking to come to this championship next year . For me , at this moment this championship has , for the riders , three very good and strong riders , and then it has young riders like Locatelli , Rinaldi , now Öttl , my team-mate Xavi or me . The younger riders year-by-year are coming to this championship and I think year-by-year the level is higher than always . Everybody wants to come here . But it is the same problem in this championship , a lot of places are fully closed . There is not a lot of places to come from MotoGP™ to here . But , I am 100 % sure that MotoGP™ , Moto2 or even Moto3 riders will come to Superbike next year .”
And speaking of recent former Moto2 riders like Iker and Xavi , most of the last WorldSSP Champions have been Moto2 riders first of all . Of course , WorldSBK has its very own feeder system of classes , no matter the rider ’ s nationality . In the past it was STK600 and STK1000 , plus of course WorldSSP . Now we have WorldSSP and WorldSSP300 .
Just this year we have had a great influx of talent from the smallest class into WorldSSP , in the shape of 2021 champion Adrian Huertas , the 2020 champion Jeffrey Buis plus Tom Booth Amos . Other proven ‘ 300 ’ champions like Manuel Gonzalez and Ana Carrasco have moved over to the smaller MotoGP™ classes . A mere glance at the current WorldSBK entry shows how things are already , if we look only at those riders who can be called MotoGP™ products .
Alvaro Bautista is a long time MotoGP™ rider , and even a World Champion in the 125cc GP class . Toprak Razgatlioglu , easy to forget , started his racing focus in the MotoGP™ feeder class of Red Bull Rookies , but can more fairly be thought of as a product of Superstock / Superbike . Andrea Locatelli is a Moto2 rider , become WorldSSP Champion and a WorldSBK podium rider in no time . Lecuona and Vierge we know about . Loris Baz , WorldSBK paddock all the way , but with a period in MotoGP™ . Scott
Redding in MotoGP™ to his boots , but came via BSB in the end . Philipp Öttl is again Moto3 / Moto2 stock , then into WorldSSP and Superbike . Hafizh Syahrin - pure MotoGP™ .
In fairness , we are getting riders from all still over but a whole tranche of them can count the MotoGP™ classes as their main background already . The direction of travel seems clear enough . An overhead view of both WorldSBK and MotoGP™ camps can be found in the vastly experienced Paolo Ciabatti , Sporting Director of Ducati Corse . He looks after GP , WorldSBK and National Ducati racing strategies . At Misano he said of the chances of seeing more MotoGP™ riders swapping paddocks , “ As you can see , and especially this year with the unfortunate decision of Suzuki , there is an abundance of very good riders and not many good bikes available in MotoGP™ . So , I think it ’ s good to have this exchange . I think the only rider with a chance to really go to MotoGP™ if the situation was different would be Toprak , but Yamaha has not a satellite team . He doesn ’ t want to go on a satellite team anyway , so it ’ s a little bit like this will never happen . Lecuona did some very good things last year with KTM from Tech3 . Here he is doing good on a bike that still needs some development , in my opinion . So , I think it ’ s a good possibility . I think when there is a competitive class where some riders are at a very high level , it can be a place where a rider can find his dimension . If he ’ s young enough , maybe eventually go back ( to MotoGP™ ).”
And what of new teams in our WorldSBK championship ? There is lots of good news there in terms of people like MotoCorsa Ducati , Yamaha MotoX , Gil Motorsport Yamaha , Bonovo Action BMW moving up from nationals to Worlds quite recently . But as we are in the UK this weekend , where is the next British Superbike team ready to swim across the Channel with endless ambition in their eyes ? SMR were the last ones in SBK , and they have been here for some time .
We asked the incredibly experienced World Championship winning Team Manager Paul Denning about UK teams coming to WorldSBK . “ It would be nice if a couple of the stronger BSB teams with good funding ,” he said at Assen . “ The FHO BMW team looks like it could have the aspiration to do well and the funding to come in at a world level . There ’ s still a great passion for Superbike racing in the UK . If any team owner or team principal on the UK side wants to come and sit down and sort of learn the easy way in terms of the pitfalls and what to do and what not to do in order to make it cost-efficient and what have you , I ’ d love to chat to them and love to help them because like any series , it lives or dies according to the quality of the content that ’ s in it . Right now , we ’ ve got 25 bikes and looking at the results in Aragon , it ’ s kind of cool , really , because you look right down the sort of battle between 10th and 15th and think , ‘ Wow , there ’ s some good riders in there .’ If you ’ re just a bit missing on the weekend , that ’ s where you ’ re going to be . So , it ’ s stronger now than it has been for a couple of years . A couple more British teams would be great .”
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