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The 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship grid has plenty of changes and novelties as the start of the season approaches, and one of the big changes heading into the new season was American rider Garrett Gerloff. At the end of the 2022 season, he said goodbye to the brand which he had competed with throughout his career to make the switch to BMW to form a partnership with Loris Baz at the Bonovo Action BMW squad. Gerloff has already made his debut with the M 1000 RR at Jerez and Portimao and now faces the final preparations before making his BMW competition debut at the Australian Round.

UPS AND DOWNS: three busy years with Yamaha

Three intense campaigns with the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team are in the books for Gerloff, the team he first joined in 2020 for his WorldSBK campaign. In the years with GRT Yamaha, Gerloff became a household name in WorldSBK; both for the almost instant success he enjoyed in his debut campaign and for his spectacular and fiery riding. The latter, while providing some epic moments for team and rider, also led to some controversial incidents during his time at the team.

His time with the Japanese brand has been anything but a flat line. Podium finishes at Barcelona, Estoril or Donington Park have been offset by long periods without a rostrum finish, but the Texan has managed to visit the podium at least once in each season. When it was revealed he would leave Yamaha to join BMW in 2023, it caused the first shock in the ‘silly season’ rider market. It meant an 11-year relationship with Yamaha would come to an end, a relationship that allowed Gerloff to claim two MotoAmerica Supersport titles and victories in Superbike in the USA, before his jump to WorldSBK.

CHARGE AND RESET: the BMW project

Like other riders who have opted for the German manufacturer in recent years – Scott Redding (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) after ending his time with Ducati and teammate Michael van der Mark after leaving Yamaha – Gerloff hopes that the change of scenery will be a boost in his WorldSBK career. There is a reunion in the BMW garage for Gerloff with crew chief Les Pearson, the crew chief who guided his first steps in the WorldSBK paddock and was by his side in his debut campaign.

The Texan has celebrated this renewed collaboration and the environment that has been found in his new garage: “It’s incredible! The atmosphere we have is like it was before. It wasn’t my decision that Les left me, but that’s a different story. I’m so glad to have him back, happy he was willing to come back. He’s a really good guy and I can see his brain just working, trying to figure it all out. I feed off that and it pushes me to focus even more. It’s really good, without a doubt. I’m very happy with the whole environment I found. It’s super positive!”

At Portimao, Gerloff declared himself “impressed” with his new bike, “satisfied” with the first tests and also aware that he has a lot of work ahead of him. “It’s ridiculous how fast the top three are going and then how close from fourth to me is,” he summed up at the test. But, if there was a particularly smiling face during the test, it was Gerloff’s. Wrapped up in his new team, with his favourite crew chief back at his side and teaming up with a new teammate with whom he is avowedly in tune, the great American hope in WorldSBK appears to be reinvigorated and his evolution with the BMW project will be one of the must-follow stories of 2023.

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