Ahead of what will be their first season back in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team is full of optimism about their return season after a decade out of the competition. While the Provec Racing squad maintains a lot of continuity from their past years competing with Kawasaki, the team now is incorporating a new bike, the KB998 Rimini, and while they are sure they can improve the package as the season progresses, riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani have been turning heads with their speed in testing so far. At the team launch event from their factory in Rimini, Italy, the team spoke on the state of the project as well as their aspirations for this 2025 season.

LOWES PICKING UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF: Lowes doesn’t appear to have lost a step with the new KB998

Alex Lowes finished fourth last season as a part of the Kawasaki Racing Team, largely the same Provec Racing personnel who now are working with bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team with their new Bimota machinery. Lowes has stated prior in the preseason that he is feeling comfortable on the Bimota, to the extent that he feels that already the level of their KB998 is close to what they had achieved with atop their ZX-10 RR Ninja, a glowing vote of confidence for a bike that only started its testing 10 months ago.

Discussing representing Bimota in 2025, Lowes stated: “It’s a pleasure, I’ve been part of the Provec family since the end of 2019 with the Kawasaki, and now in this new era with Bimota. It looks fantastic, the colours are great. My experience is going to help the project. I had a great year last year and I want to keep that momentum going for this year. The guys at Bimota and Kawasaki have done a massive effort to get everything ready. The winter is never an easy time for the engineers, especially when we have a new project, so I appreciate that and looking forward to getting racing.”

On his chances of getting a win at Round 1 in Australia, a circuit he won at twice last season, Lowes said: “There’s always a chance. We have a lot of work to do before that, two days of testing. We’ve got a good chance of being competitive. Both in Jerez and Portimao I felt like we had a similar level to the Kawasaki already. Let’s see, but I’m quite optimistic, it’s a track that I enjoy, I think the bike will suit the track. We have to target being that competitive for many weekends”.

“IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT TO START FROM THE FRONT CONSISTENLY” – Bassani on his Superpole improvements

Axel Bassani so far in the limited preseason testing has looked much more competitive than he showed last year in his first season with Provec Racing atop their Kawasaki, he showed clear upside throughout the season but slower times in Tissot Superpole sessions and races put him a step behind other riders on the grid and hampered his ability to shoot for the podium. With the new Bimota package, he seems to be improving with the SCQ tyre and may be a true force to be reckoned with this season.

“With the Kawasaki, the Superpole sessions were really difficult for me,” begun Bassani.  “With this bike we tried the SCQ tyre a few times, not a lot, but we improved the times we had recorded before with that tyre and with this bike I hope to continue to improve with that. Now that the level of WorldSBK is so high, it’s really important to start from the front of the grid consistently.”  

On his aspirations for this season, Bassani said: “I want to return to fight for the top positions with the top riders, it’s not easy but it’s not impossible. I hope to be part of the game and have fun with my mates on track, fight every weekend to do our best, get victories where possible, and try to take Bimota back to the top.”

BASSANI’S IMPROVEMENTS: Duinker expands on Bassani’s SCQ gains

Axel Bassani’s Crew Chief, Marcel Duinker like much of the team was very accustomed to working with Kawasaki, and this move to Bimota has made for an interesting challenge which they really seem to be sinking their teeth into. Similar to his rider, Duinker has noticed an improvement in Bassani’s speed with the softest tyre.

“The fundamental characteristics of the bike are not too different, the same electronics and inline-4 engine from the Kawasaki but the aerodynamic effect is different, and this took us some time to get used to with the bike. Axel has improved on the SCQ tyres, we have only had four days of testing so far, so our experience with the bike is not a lot but he has shown good pace and confidence from the beginning,” said Duinker.

“WE ARE HAPPY WITH THE STARTING POINT” – Pere Riba, Lowes’ Crew Chief

Alex Lowes’ Crew Chief, Pere Riba shares in the optimism shown by the English rider. While the bike may not be in the form that he sees it capable of being, over the course of the season he appears confident in the idea that similar to how they developed their package with Kawasaki, the same will happen now with Bimota. Australia’s final round of preseason testing as well as the first few rounds of the season will provide great insights to the bike and the next move they should make to improve their system.

“To adapt to a new bike brings a lot of things, I was working with a Kawasaki for many years, and we have been following processes year by year to improve, now it’s starting fresh, we are excited because there is lots to do. Even during this winter, we could not try everything we wanted to do because of the rain,” said Riba “We are facing now the first races of the Championship, we will understand race by race the direction we want to go but we are happy with the starting point, both riders showed good speed in Jerez and Portimao and let’s see what we can do.”

RODA’S CONTROLLED VARIABLES: Team Manager Guim Roda speaks on the importance of maintaining his riders from his time with Kawasaki

bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team Principal, Guim Roda highlighted what it means to the team to have kept their two riders on board to embark on this journey together. To him it was very important that in light of so many unknowns, the team persist with the same riders to at least be able to compare bike’s pros and cons to those brought from the rider. This decision is appearing to pay off as not only are Lowes and Bassani performing well with the bike, but he highlights the role he hopes to see Bimota play in the drama of the 2025 season.

“It was one of the first mandatory things we decided upon with this project, when you change a lot of variables it’s harder to know which is the one that is failing, so we considered that we already had a good working environment with the riders.” Said Roda “They were performing quite well and Bassani was still in his first year with Provec racing, so he was still getting adjusted to the rhythm. Now that we have introduced the new bike into the system we can focus on specifics and make progress into this year.”

Roda closed with an apt metaphor for the positions he would like to see Bimota finish the season “The main goal for us is to not just enjoy the show this season, but to be a part of the show, and be the actors on the podium. The final result is significant, there are lots of really talented riders in the Championship, but I think in this first year we can be a really important part of this show.” Said Roda

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