SBK Magny-Cours FP3: BMW and Honda get new help—here’s why it’s useless

The Superbike World Championship works like this today: after two months away, we’re back on track at Magny-Cours. And after the first day of practice, on Saturday morning, the promoter announces that in the meantime the technical regulations have changed. A grotesque situation for a championship of this level.

Without anyone really realizing it, a new change was introduced to the fuel flow meter values, that is, the device that regulates the fuel supply and was intended to be the tool to balance performance among the five manufacturers present. Specifically, starting from this round BMW and Honda will have half a kilo of additional fuel, while Bimota has had the same amount taken away. Ducati is already at the lower limit, i.e., 44 kilos/hour, a value that cannot be reduced any further. Dropping below such a threshold would put the engines at high risk of overheating and mechanical failure due to an excessively lean mixture.

Beyond the technical handouts, the numbers still don’t add up at BMW. Here at Magny-Cours last year, Toprak Razgatlioglu won three out of three, also setting the race record with 1'35"500. Today’s riders, Miguel Oliveira and Danilo Petrucci, are miles away from their predecessor’s performance levels. The Portuguese rider, confirmed by BMW for 202, is not at all satisfied with the technical situation. “It’s not a matter of a few tenths of a second, but many tenths per lap,” the Portuguese makes it clear. “It’s not just one area, but all of them, where our rivals are a step ahead of us. We’ve identified what we can do. Now we hope that whatever BMW does is the right approach. A key area for us is improving corner handling. The wider the corner radius and the faster we go, the more additional steering we need. We lose a lot of time in this area. The rest is a consequence of that.” Oliveira ended practice with 1'36"260, therefore far off Toprak’s time, in a disheartening sixteenth place. Even worse for Danilo Petrucci, who has never found a feeling with this bike.

Even with less fuel than anyone else, the Panigale V4 R remains out of reach for all, with the usual Nicolò Bulega on another planet. In FP3 the championship leader clocked 1'34"987, over half a second under the race lap record and with the absolute record already in sight: in Superpole, with the qualifying Pirelli SCQ available, Toprak’s ’25 benchmark is destined to be obliterated. Ducati, flussometer be damned, is sailing full speed ahead: there are seven of them in single file at the top of the combined practice times!