SBK, Locatelli-Yamaha collapse in 2026: Michelin, regulations and Miller offer hope for 2027

A season to forget for the Iwata manufacturer, unable to reach the podium or achieve any truly significant results. There will be no new R1 in 2027, but can the team still make progress?

In 2025, Andrea Locatelli managed to fight for third place in the Superbike riders’ standings, eventually finishing fourth. He could never have imagined that in 2026 he would finish just twelfth, with his points tally more than halved: from 310 last year to 121 in the season that has just ended. It’s a startling slump, especially given the quality of the Lombard rider.

In 2026, his best results were fifth place in the wet Race 2 at Phillip Island and sixth in Race 1 at Assen. Those rounds in Australia and the Netherlands were the first two on the calendar; after that, he was unable to finish in the top six again. That meant no podiums—a fate shared by every other Yamaha rider. Xavi Vierge, Loka’s new teammate and 13th in the final standings with 113 points, managed no better than sixth place, which he achieved twice. In other words, no R1 finished a race in the top four this season.

Things were even worse for GYTR GRT Yamaha riders Remy Gardner and Stefano Manzi. The son of a racing legend scored 63 points, while Italian rookie Manzi managed just 46. The Yamaha Motoxracing team is a separate case, as it does not have the same technical package and scored very little with rookie Mattia Rato (3 points) and Bahattin Sofuoglu (4), who was later replaced by Twan Smits (0).

In the manufacturers’ championship, the Iwata marque finished fourth with 183 points, one behind BMW, which fielded only two bikes and also had to contend with injuries to its Oliveira-Petrucci pairing. It was Yamaha’s worst result since returning to SBK in 2016, following its withdrawal at the end of the 2011 season.

2026 was a disastrous year, but Locatelli hopes the future will bring results more in keeping with the past, when he could consistently fight for a place in the top five or six: "I’m not happy with how I finished the season, but I gave it my all and tried to do everything possible. We know we need to take a different path and try new solutions to make progress, build confidence and take a step forward next year. I believe we can do it together: Yamaha believes in me, and I believe in them, so we’ll keep working in this direction. Just a year ago, I was fighting for third in the championship, so I know I can do it". It’s worth remembering that he also changed crew chiefs this year: he began the season with Giulio Nava and continued with Emanuele Martinelli from the Magny-Cours round onward.

Pata Maxus Yamaha team principal Paul Denning also said he was disappointed with the 2026 season: "It didn’t go to plan at all - he admitted to the official WorldSBK channels-. We struggled due to a combination of factors: the competition took a step forward unlike anything we’d seen before, and the championship was dominated by a single manufacturer, with both its factory and independent teams. At the same time, we didn’t meet our targets for development and improvement, and we weren’t able to make a major step forward".

In 2027, Vierge will ride a Ducati Panigale V4 R for the Barni team, while his place at Yamaha will be taken by Jack Miller, who is moving over from MotoGP. The team in blue is hoping the Australian rider will make a strong impact, though it will be just as important for the team to provide him with a competitive technical package: "Jack’s decision to join us gives the whole project a boost and creates positive pressure. We need to give him a competitive package and support him as well as we can. He’ll be with us for two seasons, and I believe the process of getting back to where we belong will be a gradual one. It will also depend on how next season’s regulations balance performance across the different design philosophies. At this point, I think it’s impossible to make bold predictions, beyond saying we’ll do our best". Miller can bring fresh energy to the team, but that alone won’t be enough.

The 2027 Superbike World Championship will bring some major changes, including Michelin becoming the new tyre supplier and the mandatory adoption of Brembo carbon-ceramic brake discs, as well as changes to the technical regulations aimed at balancing performance more effectively. For example, a specific engine-rev limit will be introduced alongside a fuel-flow restriction to penalise those who are “too” fast and help those struggling more. We’ll see whether the system works. Then, in 2028, a new “Rank” classification—similar to MotoGP’s—will determine which struggling manufacturers qualify for technical concessions.

Yamaha will not bring a new R1 to the grid, so it will have to get the most out of its existing technical package and hope the 2027 changes work in its favour, allowing it to be more competitive after a truly poor 2026 season.

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