Bautista without a seat for 2027: a Chinese manufacturer offers him the Superbike of the future

Alvaro Bautista does not have a bike for the 2027 Superbike World Championship. The Barni Racing team has chosen Xavi Vierge to partner Yari Montella, and the two-time Superbike world champion, who is about to turn 42, finds himself without a seat. However, his career could have an unexpected epilogue: a Chinese manufacturer is said to have contacted him for the development of a future Superbike. This is reported by the French outlet paddock-gp.

Xavi Vierge will form the Ducati team’s pairing with Yari Montella, effectively taking the seat occupied this season by Bautista. For the former 125cc world champion, the problem is that the market has closed in around him. Bautista wanted to keep racing, but the main seats have now been assigned and, for the moment, there is no clear solution for him to remain a full-time rider in 2027. By regulation, Bautista is forced to carry 5–6 kilograms of ballast to reach the rider-plus-gear minimum weight of 80 kilograms: no team wants to shoulder this burden. Retirement might seem the logical conclusion, were it not for a door that has just been left slightly ajar.

According to information circulating in Spain and echoed by the French outlet, the Chinese manufacturer has offered Bautista a role in developing its Superbike. A scenario very different from what the Spaniard hoped for: instead of racing the entire 2027 season, he would focus on testing and development, with a view to a possible debut of the bike in the 2028 Superbike season.

The brand name is not known. There are two leads, CFMoto and ZXMoto, but they do not carry the same level of certainty. CFMoto is indeed developing the SR-RR with a 997 cc V4 engine, but it has not yet officially announced any WorldSBK program for 2028.

For ZXMoto, however, the project is public. Founder Zhang Xue has confirmed that development of a Superbike has begun and that the goal is to enter the World Championship in 2028, with a decidedly unusual architecture: a V5 engine.

There remains, however, a significant obstacle. In its current form, the Superbike technical regulations do not provide for a five-cylinder configuration. Remember that any regulatory change requires unanimity within the MSMA (the association of racing manufacturers). A single opposing vote is enough to block any change. The single ECU, for example, has never been adopted in Superbike because BMW is against it. In MotoGP there is the very recent precedent of the single-bike rule: it suited everyone, but KTM vetoed it, so the number of available bikes remains two.

There had already been an approach between Bautista and ZXMoto. Back at the beginning of September, when asked directly about the subject, the Spaniard had opened up to the possibility of making his technical expertise available. “My experience could be useful,” Bautista said, as reported by Paddock-GP. It now remains to be seen whether that willingness will turn into a contract. For Bautista, it could be the final challenge: a year away from the spotlight to prepare, in 2028, a return to the track with an all-new bike.

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Sources: Paddock-GP