News

An outstandings 37th season of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, one of the greatest sporting stories ever seen on many front. Whether it was Toprak Razgatlioglu’s (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) crazy achievements and title with BMW, Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) being a title contender in his rookie year, Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) winning after four years away and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) back to the top step after a life-threatening accident off-track. There were some negatives for some riders and teams too but we’ll take a look at all of the topics.

TOPRAK IRREPRESSIBLE: 18 wins, 13 in a row and BMW’s first title – but he is human

Few could have imagined that when Toprak signed for BMW – the ailing German manufacturer, without a dry race win in WorldSBK since 2013 and no podium at all in 2023 – that he’d go on to dominate the Championship. On the podium in just his second race and winning in dramatic fashion in his fourth, Toprak went on to win everything from Assen’s Race 2 in April until Portimao’s Race 2 in August. He was hurtling towards success before a huge crash at Magny-Cours in FP2 ruled him out of two rounds, the highs of the previous rounds now a distant memory. He may have been an alien in the first seven rounds but even Toprak – who crashed twice all season – makes mistakes. In the end, it didn’t matter too much as he was able to wrap the title up at Jerez on Saturday but it was proof that the #54 can’t always walk on water. Looking to next year, he has to be the favourite and in a second season with BMW, who’d bet against him starting strong in Australia? Yet to turn a wheel with the new BMW in testing, we’ll have to wait until 2025 to get our first look at the #1 on the front of a BMW for the first time in World Superbike.

ROOKIES CAN RULE THE ROOST: Bulega and Iannone impress in 2024

Nicolo Bulega became the first rider to win back-to-back races in WorldSSP and WorldSBK, bursting onto the top step of the podium in Phillip Island’s curtain-raiser. On the podium some 24 times in the whole season, Bulega was absolutely remarkable and to win the closest race finish of all-time is another feather for the hat. He took the title race to the last round and only crashed out of one race. The future is incredibly – and perhaps for the rest of the paddock, scarily – bright for the #11. At the other end of the spectrum and returning to World Championship racing, Andrea Iannone gave us all a smile and perhaps even a tear as, in his comeback ride in Australia, he grabbed the first holeshot of the season and podiumed with P3. Close to winning in Barcelona’s Superpole Race and on the podium at all-new tracks to him such as Most and Cremona, it was Aragon where he became the eighth different winner of the year. ‘The Maniac’ will make sure his second season is another one to remember.

STRUGGSVILLE: Bautista’s weight drama, Rea’s blue 2024 and more

With the combined minimum weight coming into force for the year as well as a nagging pre-season injury, Alvaro Bautista’s (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) two previous titles were always going to be more of a challenge to replicate. He won in Barcelona and Assen but then, a 161-day wait until Aragon’s Sunday double. All of those, his only wins of 2024 and finishing P3 overall in the standings – behind rookie teammate Bulega – mean it was a rather sour year. Superpole was his big problem, with just one front row all year. However, from Most onwards, the feeling did seem to comeback for Bautista – although he crashed more than anyone else at the final round at Jerez and in the season overall with 17. 

Elsewhere, a second member of the now defunct ‘titanic trio’ struggled in new colours: Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha). Nobody could have imagined that after Yamaha’s past success, he’d have just a single podium in the Superpole Race at Donington Park. 13th in the standings and third Yamaha, there’ll be one big change for 2025 and that is that Uri Paralles – long-time mechanic from KRT, who moved with Rea to Yamaha in 2024 – will replace Andrew Pitt as crew chief. Elsewhere, it wasn’t the season Axel Bassani (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) had hoped for, rookie Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) struggled to adapt to the Pirelli tyre characteristics and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Motocorsa Racing Team), quite frankly, had a horror show in comparison to his race-winning 2023 campaign. 

COMEBACK STORIES: 2024 jerked the tears and saw some of most emotional tales

Besides Andrea Iannone’s return to winning and Rea’s highlight of a podium amid choppy waters, there were plenty of other returns to form. Danilo Petrucci started strong but a life-threatening motocross crash left his year – and racing future – in doubt. A phenomenal return at Misano saw him come home in P6 before a first podium back since injury at Most. But it’d be Cremona where ‘Petrux’ didn’t just take his first WorldSBK win, adding to MotoGP™, MotoAmerica, Stock 600, Stock 1000 and even the Dakar Rally, but in fact wiped the floor with the opposition with a triple, just the fourth rider to do it. WorldSBK’s festival-like atmosphere was insane in our first visit to Cremona. 

Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) doubted his own abilities at times before knocking on the door of a podium in the second half of 2024 and was finally rewarded with P3 at Estoril – making it five manufacturers on the box in 2024. Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) took a first win in three years at Magny-Cours and saved BMW’s weekend and then, achieved his target of standing on the podium with teammate Toprak at Jerez. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) hadn’t won since 2020 but doubled up at Phillip Island with new crew chief Pere Riba and Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) achieved his first WorldSBK podium – Australia’s first in over 13 years.

EARLY LEARNING CENTRE: what can we take into 2025 after testing?

The big change is that KRT become Bimota and the Italian chassis designers have come up with a split-chassis design – the only brand on the grid with that. BMW have a new homologation with different aero and Yamaha’s new homologation for next year has already undergone extensive track time and testing. Honda and Ducati have no new bike but in the case of the Japanese, we’ve already seen Xavi Vierge’s new crew chief working with him – his previous one, Gorka Segura, moves to work with Sam Lowes. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) has been fast already and we’re yet to see how Scott Redding goes aboard the Bonovo Action MGM Ducati.Keep an eye on Tito Rabat (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) and rookie teammate Bahattin Sofuoglu as well as Ryan Vickers (Motocorsa Racing Team).

2025 STARTS NOW: relive 2024 – including our Season Review – and more with the WorldSBK VideoPass!