Supersport: De Rosa restarts at 39 with the fate of the other Chinese brand, QJ Motor, in his hands

Raffaele De Rosa is the grandad of the Supersport World Championship. He turned 39 on March 25 and has been racing internationally for 24 seasons. He skipped the Phillip Island round because QJ Motor is taking part in the World Supersport Challenge. So he will make his seasonal debut at Portimão.

De Rosa has been reborn at QJ Motor: zero pressure and plenty of enthusiasm. Every points finish on the Chinese bike is seen as a success. In 2025 the Campania rider finished the championship with three top 10s, results that just a few months earlier seemed impossible for the Chinese manufacturer. Now he hopes to take another step forward but isn’t deluding himself: the bike is still quite raw.

"We did few tests," Raffaele De Rosa tells Corsedimoto. "We were at Jerez and everything went fairly well, then at Portimão and to be honest I expected something better there. Last year we homologated the new bike so no substantial changes are planned for this year. The base was already good because we were on the verge of the top 10 with fairly small gaps to the leader. In the end, when you’re up there, the details still matter. We made a few small changes within what’s allowed by the regulations. Now we need to fine-tune everything a bit because we got the bike halfway through last year, so there wasn’t a big development phase. The bike was produced and immediately taken to the track, clearly following our directions. Maybe we’re not yet at the limit of our potential, we have room to grow, and that’s positive."