Petrucci Sparks Debate: Liberty Media Must Change and Promote Superbike

The BMW rider hopes the new ownership will properly enhance the Superbike product: will it really happen?

After three positive seasons with the Barni Spark Racing Team, Danilo Petrucci has earned a deserved opportunity: racing for a factory team in the WorldSBK Championship. The legacy that he and Miguel Oliveira are taking on in the ROKiT BMW Motorrad garage is a heavy one—over the past two years it has triumphed with Toprak Razgatlioglu—but both are talented riders and should perform well as time goes on.

As we have reported multiple times, the pre-season tests at Jerez and Portimão were hindered by bad weather, which prevented teams from working normally. BMW left Portugal early to move to Valencia, where Petrucci and Oliveira were able to ride in decent conditions, though they would have needed more track time to adapt to the M 1000 RR. In the recent test at Phillip Island, which also hosts the opening round of the 2026 Superbike season, they were able to ride in the dry and gain experience. But the road to success still appears long.

The rider from Terni is ready to tackle the first round of the 2026 World Superbike Championship in new colors: "I'm feeling a mix of emotions. I'm definitely happy to start this new adventure," he told the official WorldSBK site, "but at the same time I know it's not easy. I'm in the team that won the last two world titles, so expectations are quite high. Unfortunately, we didn't have much of a chance to test this winter. Basically, I started using the bike last Monday, I still need to understand it well. I'm happy and at the same time nervous; it's part of my job."

Having ridden the Ducati Panigale V4 R in recent years, he is now undergoing an adaptation process to the BMW M 1000 RR that requires some time. Petrucci is confident he can be competitive, even if this weekend he might struggle on a track that has never been ideal for the German bike: "The last time I raced with an inline-four engine was in MotoGP, in 2013, precisely with a BMW engine. It was a different racing era. I'm not used to it, but I'm adapting. I know the bike has many strengths and we need to understand how to exploit them; it's a matter of time. We will certainly struggle this weekend, but you never know..."

The former Barni Spark Racing Team rider also spoke about the qualities of the M 1000 RR and the challenges of racing in Australia: "It's very stable, the power delivery is very smooth and it's easy to open the throttle. But at Phillip Island we don't have many heavy braking points, there are a few long corners and we need to figure out how to use the bike well there. This will be a good test for us; we can compare ourselves with the other riders and I hope to have some good races. I'm not expecting too much, but I'm fairly confident and I can't wait to start."

Talking about goals is inevitable, especially when racing for a factory World Superbike team. Expectations are high, but Petrucci doesn’t want to heap excessive pressure on himself: "Since I arrived in World Superbike, I've always said I want to be at the top and improve my results compared to the previous year. This approach led me to join a factory team, the one that won the last two titles, and I’m really proud of that. In the first year I finished sixth, then fifth, and in 2025 I fought for third before getting injured at the end. I want to improve; being in the top 5 would be positive."

Liberty Media has acquired the majority of what, until a few days ago, was still called Dorna Sports, the company that holds the rights to both MotoGP and Superbike. There has long been skepticism about the same entity organizing two championships that used to be competitors. It is not yet clear what the new ownership will do to enhance SBK.

Petrucci hopes the right choices will be made to grow the production-derived world championship: "I've suggested many times to those in charge that we need to be a different product," reports Speedweek, "not MotoGP’s little sister. I found it interesting to see races with pit stops; I’d like to run a night race, or two or three sprints." We’ll see if the Umbrian rider’s wishes are granted.