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The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship 2022 campaign gets underway shortly with everyone on the grid looking to make an impact on the season. For some riders, this will be continuing their form from 2021 while for others it will be looking to bounce back from a difficult last season. Everyone on the grid will be looking to cause a surprise throughout the season and, with 24 riders lining up on a full-time basis throughout the year, there is scope for any rider on the grid to cause a surprise or upset throughout the year.

One rider who has shown impressive pace in 2022 testing and is looking to bounce back from a rollercoaster 2021 is Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team). There were high hopes for the American in his second WorldSBK campaign after he burst onto the scene in his rookie 2020 season and, while he claimed two further podiums, a series of incidents meant his form dropped away as the season progressed. Now, after a reset over the winter, Gerloff will be looking to carry on his strong off-season showing and claim his first WorldSBK victory early on in the season.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) is another who had a rollercoaster 2021 campaign. Three wins, at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” and Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, and seven in podiums in total showed Rinaldi’s speed in his first season with the factory Ducati squad. Now with another year of experience to his name with the factory team, Rinaldi will be looking to add to his wins and podiums from last year as he looks to break into the top three in the Championship.

It was an injury-hit campaign for Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) as the British rider missed races throughout the second half of the 2021 season. He started last year strongly on the new ZX-10RR machine, with three podiums in the first three races but he would stand on the rostrum only twice more having ridden at “only 80 or 90%” fitness throughout the season. Now, after testing throughout the off-season, Lowes will be hoping his injury problems are behind him as he looks to become a regular podium contender and secure his first win since Phillip Island in 2020.

For 2021’s top rookie, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK), 2022 is about building on his podium and consistent top-five finishes. After his first top five finish in Race 1 at the TT Circuit Assen, Locatelli went on a run of 12 straight finishes there to propel him up the Championship standings. He ended his rookie season fourth in the Championship standings and helped Pata Yamaha claim the Teams’ Championship, but what will the Italian be able to do in 2022 with a year of WorldSBK experience under his belt?

Another Italian who shone in his rookie season was Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) with a podium finish to his name in difficult conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Like Locatelli, Bassani’s rookie campaign was all about consistency as he finished all but two of his 37 races in 2021, and, of the 35 he finished, all bar one was inside the top 13. By the end of the season, Bassani had joined the group regularly fighting for a top five finish and this is something he will be hoping to continue throughout 2022.

After claiming BMW’s first victory since WorldSBK visited the Nurburgring in 2013 when he claimed victory at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in a rain-affected Tissot Superpole Race, Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) will be looking to build on that throughout 2022 alongside new teammate Scott Redding. Van der Mark’s off-season, however, was disrupted through a fractured leg sustained when mountain biking and he was forced to miss the Misano test, and he will also miss testing at Catalunya and MotorLand Aragon before the season begins. The Dutchman, now in his second season on the M 1000 RR, will be hoping to be back in action as soon as possible as he looks to add to his and BMW’s win tally.

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