SBK, Alvaro Bautista and Honda: the backstory of the return that didn’t happen

Bautista says there was a moment when he discussed a possible return to Honda: here’s how it went.

Age is no longer on his side, but it isn’t stopping Alvaro Bautista, who will be on the Superbike World Championship grid in 2026 as well. The 41-year-old Spaniard will ride the new Ducati Panigale V4 R for the Barni Spark Racing Team. For the first time since racing in the category, he will be part of an independent team, even though Marco Barnabò’s outfit has proven to be of excellent level and has been the best of the independents in the past two years. In 2025 it even came close to third place in the overall riders’ standings with Danilo Petrucci, thwarted by an unfortunate injury that forced him to miss the last two rounds.

Before signing with the Barni Spark Racing Team, the two-time WorldSBK champion had also been in contact with BMW and Honda. As explained by both him and his manager Simone Battistella, the need to carry about 6 kilos of ballast somewhat hindered the discussions. Each manufacturer would have had to adapt their bikes to the extra weight required by the regulations, which isn’t simple.

Interviewed by our colleagues at Speedweek, Bautista explained how things went with Honda: "The problem at the time was that they were trying to bring Jorge Martin to MotoGP. HRC wanted to define the MotoGP teams first and then deal with the Superbike World Championship. But you can’t wait forever. They showed interest, but there was no concrete offer."

For him it would have been a return, given that he raced for the HRC WorldSBK team in 2020–2021, but the move didn’t materialize and the Honda box will feature the Chantra–Dixon pairing: "They had a contract with Chantra," he added, "and there was no longer a place for him in MotoGP. They had to find him one somewhere and decided to bring him here. HRC is very involved in MotoGP and I think they will want to fight for good results in the Superbike World Championship as well."

Honda returned to SBK with an official HRC team in 2020, the year it brought the new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade to the track. Bautista took a total of 3 podiums, the same number achieved by the Lecuona–Vierge duo between 2022 and 2025.

Alvaro explained that from the outside the feeling is that the CBR has improved compared to the one he had available in a two-year period marked by several crashes: "The current bike is a bit better than the one I rode, which was more critical and aggressive. I had to push a lot and fight with it. It seems that now you can ride in a more natural way. I wanted to improve many aspects of the bike, but it was the COVID era and it was really difficult to develop the bike quickly."

It should also be noted that Honda introduced a new version of the Fireblade in 2024 with some evolutions, although Lecuona and Vierge did not feel major progress. There’s also the question of what results the HRC team could achieve by betting on top Superbike riders instead of gambling on riders coming from Grand Prix racing who lack experience in the category and need to adapt to many new things. It won’t be easy for Chantra and Dixon, although it should be remembered that Jonathan Rea will be a test rider: he could be a great asset.