PREVIEW: Razgatlioglu and van der Mark set for first 2025 test as BMW and Bimota head to Aragon
After not testing at Jerez, the 2024 Champion and his teammate will be back on track in Spain, with Bimota joining them at Aragon
Two teams from the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship will head to MotorLand Aragon for two days of testing at the Spanish venue. The ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team will be joined by the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team at Aragon, which will be the first glimpse of Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and teammate Michael van der Mark ahead of the 2025 campaign.
Both Razgatlioglu and van der Mark missed last week’s Jerez test, with BMW’s test riders – Sylvain Guintoli and Markus Reiterberger drafted in – as they bedded in the 2025 engine and put some kilometres on it. The German brand only did one day of testing at Jerez with the test team, instead looking to put more focus on the Aragon test where ‘El Turco’ and van der Mark will be in action, also testing new aerodynamics on the M 1000 RR.
Speaking at Jerez on the Aragon plan, Team Principal Shaun Muir said: “At Jerez, we had the new 2025 engine upgrade and we basically just wanted to put kilometres on those engines to do a full preparation for Aragon. At Aragon, we’ll roll out the newer items. I hope they’ll come back full of energy with a bit of time to recover from the fantastic weekend we’ve just had. The bikes are, by and large, complete after today with the engine upgrades in them. We’ve got some new material, new aerodynamics to try on the bike and it’ll be the engineers working with the application guys and starting to get the new engine dialled in, all the characteristics that Michael and Toprak are looking for with the engine brake feel.”
The BMW team will be joined by Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes from the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team as they get their second taste of the new machine. Bimota are returning to WorldSBK action in 2025 with their testing programme starting already. At Jerez, test rider Florian Marino took over test duties on Day 1, before Lowes and Bassani got their first taste of the bike on Day 2, where they finished first and second.
With both riders heading into the new era of the Provec Racing-run squad with knowledge of the Kawasaki ZX-10RR – Lowes raced it from 2020 while Bassani was on it last season for the first time – their focus will be on adapting to the new bike which, although is powered by Kawasaki, has different characteristics thanks to a new chassis and aerodynamics (you can read more about the Bimota’s tech side HERE).
Follow all the off-season action from WorldSBK using the WorldSBK VideoPass!
