Official: Full 2023 WorldSBK rider line-up confirmed

In what is set to be one of the strongest WorldSBK rider line-ups ever, a total of 23 riders including six full-time rookies will line-up in Phillip Island for the season-opener next month. 

Those six rookies include the likes of MotoGP race winner Danilo Petrucci, former MotoGP rider and Moto2 champion Remy Gardner, back-to-back WorldSSP champion and 2022 MotoE winner Dominique Aegerter, British Superbike champion Bradley Ray, Eric Granado and Lorenzo Baldassarri.

• Provisional MotoGP team launch dates confirmed with Yamaha up first
• Pedrosa never felt ‘inferior’ to Marquez, but ‘he did things I couldn’t match’

Petrucci joins Barni Racing Ducati after spending one season in MotoAmerica where he came within 20 points of winning the title. 

For Gardner, Aegerter and Ray - all three riders will be aboard Yamaha machinery as the latter joined Motoxracing, while Gardner and Aegerter will be teammates in what is an all-new GRT Yamaha line-up.

Every rider on the grid is contracted until the end of this season, with the exception being six-time WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea, after the Kawasaki rider signed a multi-year deal midway through last season. 

The top three teams in 2022 all remain unchanged as Alvaro Bautista looks to defend his crown alongside Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

For Pata Yamaha, Toprak Razgatlioglu will be eager to regain the championship in what could be his last season in Superbikes. A move to MotoGP continues to be rumoured for 2024 and should Yamaha return to having two teams/four bikes - which is their intention - then that possibility will only increase. 

Andrea Locatelli goes into his third season with the team in 2023, while Alex Lowes is set for his fourth campaign with KRT.

The factory BMW team is also unchanged for 2023 as Scott Redding will again lead the German manufacturer alongside Michael Van Der Mark, who endured a nightmare 202 season due to injury.

Loris Baz has also been retained at the Bonovo Action BMW team, however, there is one change which involves Garrett Gerloff moving across from GRT Yamaha to replace new team manager Eugene Laverty. 

Like BMW, Honda have just one change which sees Granado come across from MotoE to partner Hafizh Syahrin.

Here is the full 2023 WorldSBK line-up.