SBK, BMW has already made Petrucci happy: "I came back from Portimao with a huge smile"

Petrucci rode a street-legal M 1000 RR at Portimão, racking up useful miles ahead of the Superbike pre-season tests.

Picking up Toprak Razgatlioglu’s mantle is no easy task, but Danilo Petrucci and Miguel Oliveira want to prove they can keep BMW’s winning cycle going in WorldSBK. The title favorite is Nicolò Bulega, as the 2024–2025 runner-up and riding for the Aruba Ducati team, but BMW’s new duo wants to be in the mix and give him a hard time. Even though many predict a foregone 2026 season with Bulega as champion, there could be surprises.

To best prepare for the pre-season tests, Petrucci and Oliveira lapped the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve on street-spec BMW M 1000 RRs. While not the SBK version, logging plenty of laps at Portimão—host of one of the calendar’s rounds—was still invaluable.

Petrucci is pleased with the blitz in Portugal: "I spent the last three days at Portimão," he told Speedweek, "and it’s a real pleasure to be a factory rider. BMW provided me with an excellent production bike and organized a training session for me, with all the mechanics present. It was very useful. It wasn’t a race bike, but it helped refresh my memory from the November tests and feel the differences from what I’m used to. When I did the first laps on the stock bike, I immediately realized I need to work with great concentration."

The Umbrian rider is used to the Ducati Panigale V4 R, so even hopping on the street version of the M 1000 RR helps him prepare for his stint with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team: "The bike is new to me, it was cold, and Portimão isn’t the easiest track. Doing this training before the next test at Jerez was helpful. I need to understand how to move on this bike and remember it. It’s completely different from my previous one, but I came home with a huge smile on my face because the days were useful, beautiful, and fun."

While waiting to run the Jerez test (January 21–22), Petrucci said he was happy with how the three days in Portugal went. He needed it, both to shake off some rust after the winter break and to get more comfortable in the BMW universe. It’s worth recalling that he had already tested the M 1000 RR Superbike at Jerez in November and his first impressions were fairly positive, but there’s still a lot of work to do to be able to aim for the world title.