"It is crucial for us to be back in the race" Marconi lays out what it means to Bimota to be back in WorldSBK
Bimota’s Chief Operating Officer Pierluigi Marconi spoke at their Team Launch event and outlined how their project has gotten to this point, and how he sees it going at the moment
The 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship will feature a pair of Bimota bikes for the first time since 2014, and their official team launch event just took place from their factory in Rimini, Italy. With their new bike proudly on display, the KB998 ‘Rimini’, Chief Operating Officer of the resurgent Italian manufacturer, Pierluigi Marconi fielded questions and sounded off on the experience he and his team are having so far with their project.
Bimota is an important thread in the rich tapestry of World Superbike’s history, a bimota YB4, ridden by Davide Tardozzi won the first-ever WorldSBK race back in 1988 at Donington Park in England. Following that season, Bimota competed for another three seasons before suspending their participation in the championship in 1991. From there, Bimota made sporadic appearances, in 1995, 2000, -where Anthony Gobert won the last race on the back of a Bimota- and lastly in 2014, when the manufacturer withdrew from the competition until this 2025 season. Pierluigi Marconi gave his take on what a return to WorldSBK means to Bimota.
“I’m really happy today because finally we have the chance to return to World Superbike. Racing is in the DNA of Bimota, so for us it was really important to be able to return to WorldSBK.” Said Marconi “In 2019, when Kawasaki was thinking about buying Bimota, all of us were thinking that we must return to racing. We are really happy and we think it is crucial for us to be back in the race.”
KAWASAKI COLLABORATION: Despite the distance, Bimota and Kawasaki working together well.
Bimota’s return is in part due to Kawasaki’s partial acquisition of the company, leading the two manufacturers to collaborate in the development of the KB998, combining the chassis engineering expertise of Bimota with the battle-tested race winning heart of Kawasaki’s ZX-10RR Ninja’s engine. Despite the logistical issues one could infer the project would suffer from given Bimota is based in Italy, and Kawasaki in Japan, Marconi claims that this is a non-factor in their project.
“Our World Superbike project started in 2023, and we built a prototype to understand how the bike would be. We built the frame, Kawasaki built the engine and electronics, and then we put together the first prototype.” Said Marconi “We did the first test in Italy, and the test went really well, so we sent the bike back to Japan and did some other tests with it.” Said Marconi “It seems unbelievable, but it’s become very easy to work with them, we both are really professional, and we know that we need help from Kawasaki with the engine, the suspension, the electronics, and they know we can handle the frame, the body, the ergonomics, so we work together without any issues really smoothly, and this is unbelievable.”
RIDERS SETTLING IN: Marconi stressed his faith in riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani
Despite how new the project and their KB998 platform is, riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani seem to be settling in well, as they have both performed well in preseason testing so far. With the final tests set to take place days before the season-opening Race 1 on Saturday February 22nd, bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team may very well be among the title contenders this year if they continue to display the pace they have demonstrated so far.
“We have two beautiful riders, I really like Alex and Axel, because they’re both different, but they’re both really fast, and on the track, they like to make a move. I think 2025 can be a good season for us. Long-term, we would like to win, I don’t know how long this will take but we will give all we have to accomplish this one day.” stated Marconi
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