Explained: Bimota’s plan for first WSBK laps at Jerez test
Rebranded WSBK team caught the eye in Jerez
The postseason WSBK Jerez test is notable for Bimota breaking cover.
The rebranded team - taking over from Kawasaki Racing Team - will race in the 2025 World Superbike Championship.
The first sight of the Bimota KB998 on track came on Tuesday in Jerez.
Test rider Florian Marino completed 72 laps while next season’s race duo Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani watched on.
Marino used three different bikes on Tuesday, his best lap was 1’41.360s, and he was ninth-fastest overall.
Team boss Guim Roda said; “It’s been a starting point with a lot of emotions. Straight away after the race weekend, we prepared everything on Monday and then jumped on track with the new bike.
“Of course, we’re still in a very early stage with the development but it’s a good point to check the base bike and, from then on, start to improve.”
The only feedback so far has come from test rider Marino.
Roda said: “We did part of the development with Florian so now it was just confirming all the items we asked Bimota to implement in the bike and in the mass production model they’ll produce.
“We checked here all these improvements and then starting from that base, we’ll keep working. There’s a lot of work to do.
“Now it’s time to give Florian the chance to check everything is working correctly and the riders go on it.”
Roda explained what Bimota will do on Wednesday, the second day of the test: “We’re working in this early stage to improve the bike, check the items to work on.
“We’re limited by the test days restrictions so we can’t use our riders to do this development plan, so we have to work with Florian to do as many laps as possible.
“When everything is a bit more fixed, just use the riders at the correct time and correct moment to not use more test days than needed.
“The target will be, if possible, when everything goes well, let them make some testing laps but just to understand the feeling.”
The Bimota KB998 will run with the same inline-four cylinder engine as the Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
Four winglets at the front of the fairing make the Bimota stand out from its predecessor.
The all-black livery has a red fairing.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
