Peter Hickman blasts BSB “nightmare” - drab BMW “just shows how behind we are”

Peter Hickman has lambasted his BMW’s lack of competitiveness at Donington Park.

The penultimate round of the British Superbike Championship last weekend ended with Hickman failing to finish Race 3, and pulling into the pits with no grip.

Hickman earlier missed out on Q2 by finishing 15th in opening practice, and he was later forced to start from 16th on the grid.

Hickman finished Race 1 in 15th, then was 13th in Race 2. He did not finish Race 3.

He was blighted throughout by his BMW M 1000 RR Superbike’s lack of grip.

“It’s been a shocking weekend, but there have been some positives along the way,” Hickman said.

“But to be the best BMW in 10th, just shows how behind we are – we’re about 1.5s a lap off, the bike doesn’t work with the way the championship rules are now and that’s about it.

“We made a real good step between Saturday and Sunday, I was 4th in warm up on Sunday morning, in the first race I did a 28.3, which wasn’t too far away, so it was a step forward over the 12 laps I was seven seconds faster than the day before, but it only put us around the 15th mark.

“The final race it looks like I had a bit of a dodgy rear tyre, from the first few laps I had zero grip, we didn’t change the bike at all, there was a tiny change but nothing that would have ruined it as much as it got ruined.

“I literally couldn’t ride the bike from the first lap and just went backwards, eventually I just pulled in as we were dropping back so much.”

FHO Racing BMW Motorrad teammate Josh Brookes finished ninth, 10th and 11th in the three races at Donington Park.

“That last race was really disappointing,” Brookes said.

“The final race is where we get most of our energy from to reflect on the closer of the weekend, and it was a really difficult race.

“We tried a lot of things during the weekend, even right to that last race and nothing seems to have helped, the worst part was being out of brakes in that last race; I couldn’t even race with the guys in the group I was in.

“It’s bad enough that we’re down the list, but not being able to even fight for your position because you’re struggling with no brakes; I feel like we’re already riding with a hand tied behind our back and that’s just you know, the nail in the coffin for it.

“We did a great job in qualifying to be on the front row for the first race, but every race since has just been a step backwards.

“For all the trying nothing has proven beneficial, so we’re sat here disappointed with the weekend, I had far better hopes and higher expectations than what we’re coming away with.”

Team principal Faye Ho added: “The team is coming away from Donington Park disappointed after heading into the weekend with so much good energy following Oulton Park.

“The team and riders are all trying their best to make progress and do what they can, but this season we have been hurt by the rule changes and that’s showing with the results each weekend.

“We all know what both Josh and Pete are capable of, but at the moment they’re not able to show their full potential, despite so much hard work behind the scenes.

“We have one more round left of the 2024 season in a few weeks’ time and hopefully we can finish the season on a high!”