SBK, Yamaha racks up the miles at Misano: "We’ve closed the gap." Aragon will tell the truth

A lot of work for the Yamaha teams over the two days in Emilia-Romagna: the final balance is positive, but we need to wait for the next SBK races to understand whether there has been a real step forward.

Although Ducati is dominating the 2026 Superbike World Championship, it worked with great intensity at the recent test in Misano Adriatico. All the more reason for the rivals to put in the effort, as they have a big gap to close. Yamaha is one of those that has not achieved the results it had envisioned so far. It thought it could fight fairly consistently for the podium with Andrea Locatelli and Xavi Vierge, but instead found itself in a more complicated scenario than expected. Surely having so many competitive Panigale V4 Rs on the grid doesn’t help, but the R1 doesn’t seem to have improved compared to 2025. The two days on track in Emilia-Romagna were important to try to make significant progress.

If you like Corsedimoto’s content, you can select us as a preferred source on Google by clicking here

The fastest R1 was that of Remy Gardner from the GYTR GRT Yamaha team, tenth with a 1'32"561. The Australian rider, fairly disappointing at the start of the 2026 SBK season, logged 176 laps across day 1 and day 2. Twelfth time for Vierge in 1'32"737, with 183 laps completed by the former Honda rider from Spain. Right behind him was rookie Stefano Manzi: best lap in 1'32"997 and a hefty 211 laps in total.

Locatelli ended the test with the fifteenth overall time (1'33"119) and a total of 146 laps over the two days of testing at Misano Adriatico. The Lombard rider also had to deal with a technical issue that hampered him a bit on Thursday morning. Alessandro Delbianco was also in action as a tester, twenty-first in 1'34"148, with 175 laps. The large number of laps completed by the riders allowed Yamaha to accumulate plenty of useful data for developing an R1 that needs improvement in practically every area.

There’s satisfaction in the Pata Maxus Yamaha garage with how things went at Misano. Vierge is convinced that progress has been made: "These were two very important days of testing: we tried many things and completed a great number of laps. I’m happy: we identified some positive aspects that will certainly help us in the upcoming races, both with race tires and the softer ones. Solid work and, of course, there’s still a long way to go to get where we want, but I feel we’ve made a clear step forward and slightly reduced the gap to the front."

Locatelli is a bit more cautious, but he also believes that the two days of Superbike testing helped him and the team make improvements ahead of the next rounds: "We tried to find a good feeling with my R1. Despite the time lost due to the technical problem, overall the pace, especially on used tires, was good. In Misano the conditions are always particular; the track is odd when the temperature is high because we have a lot of grip, which is quite different from other circuits. I’m looking forward to racing at Aragon."

In the GYTR GRT Yamaha camp, Gardner is the most satisfied and optimistic; he feels that the many laps completed allowed him to better understand the R1: "Overall it was a positive test and it was great to be able to rack up more mileage. Our goal was to confirm the progress made in recent races while continuing to improve, and now we have a lot of valuable data to analyze. I believe we managed to make some good steps forward. We tried several solutions with a view to the next races and we’re confident we can get closer to the front positions for the rest of the season."

Manzi is smiling too. As a rookie in the SBK championship he needs to learn more, but it seems he also left Misano with clearer ideas and concrete improvements: "Our goal was to find more performance and speed for the upcoming races, evaluating different setup solutions. Overall, it was a productive test and now we can carefully analyze everything we tried with the aim of putting all the pieces together. The target for the second half of my rookie season in WorldSBK is to keep reducing the gap to the leaders and consistently fight for the top positions."

See you at Aragon on the weekend of May 29–31 for round six of the 2026 Superbike calendar. Last year it was a tough weekend at MotorLand and, looking at the first five rounds of 2026, there’s a risk it could go similarly or worse. It will be the chance to see whether the Misano test really produced results. The long straight on the Spanish track will probably be the R1’s Achilles’ heel.