Remy Gardner Seeks a Turnaround in WorldSBK: Major 2027 Announcement

The son of a racing legend has failed to make a real comeback in WorldSBK, and 2026 has been a terrible year: some changes next year could help him.

Yamaha endured a truly difficult season in the Superbike World Championship, never reaching the podium and finishing in the top five in just one race across the season’s twelve rounds. The Pata Maxus team pairing of Locatelli and Vierge struggled, but Remy Gardner and rookie Stefano Manzi of the GYTR GRT team fared even worse.

Locatelli was Yamaha’s best-placed rider in the final standings, finishing 12th with 121 points, eight ahead of Vierge in 13th. Gardner finished 16th with 63 points, while Manzi was 18th with 46.

Compared with 2025, Locatelli more than halved his points tally: he scored 310 last year and finished fourth in the overall Superbike standings. Gardner, meanwhile, had collected 126 points, ending the season in 11th. Vierge was with Honda and Manzi in the Supersport World Championship, so the more meaningful comparison is with the other two Yamaha riders.

The 2026 season was the worst in terms of points for both Locatelli and Gardner in the category. It is a clear sign that the R1 was not competitive enough, particularly against Ducati, but also Bimota. Yamaha finished fourth in the manufacturers’ standings, just one point behind BMW.

In Milan for EICMA, Gardner reflected on the 2026 championship and explained that the arrival of the new Michelin tyres could help both him and Yamaha in 2027: "It has been a difficult season. The team, Yamaha and I haven’t achieved the results we wanted. We need to analyse everything carefully to find a way to improve next season. We can make improvements across the board. The new Michelin tyres could also bring a big step forward; they could be a very important factor. We need to understand them well, as they could be an opportunity to get back to where we deserve to be".

The Australian rider also announced that Damiano Evangelisti will no longer be his crew chief, a move intended to bring about a turnaround: "I’ll have a new crew chief. I think a bit of renewal is a positive thing; it’s good to change something after four years. It’s a great opportunity to try to make improvements. In December, we’ll have two days of testing in Valencia, where we’ll try to understand the Michelins and how the whole package works with the new tyres".

In the 2026 Superbike World Championship, he made the top 10 just six times. He will be hoping to take a big step forward in 2027, the final year of his contract with Yamaha. To earn a renewal—or an opportunity with another team on the grid—he will need to raise his level of performance.

His WorldSBK career, which began in 2023 after a difficult year in MotoGP with the KTM Tech team, has so far been far from memorable. Even before the challenging 2026 season, he had never managed to find consistency when he broke into the top five. Riding a Yamaha R1 certainly makes things a little harder than riding a Ducati Panigale V4 R, and it is worth remembering that he has also had to deal with some physical setbacks. However, in 2027 Gardner will need to show why he deserves to remain on the grid in 2028.

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