Once again, the Superbike World Championship kicks off motorcycle racing’s 2020 calendar as round one gets underway at the iconic Phillip Island circuit at the end of February.
It was a fascinating 2019 season, with initial runaway leader Alvaro Bautista pegged back and ultimately beaten by Jonathan Rea, who became the most successful rider in World Superbike history as he sealed his fifth consecutive world title, the over-arching question ahead of the upcoming season is (once again) ‘can the Northern Irishman and his trusty Kawasaki ZX-10RR be beaten?’
You’d be a brave man to bet against the Carole Nash-backed star. KRT (Kawasaki Racing Team) are undoubtedly the strongest outfit on the grid and the ZX-10RR is a proven package, one which Rea has managed to gel with tremendously over the last five years in spite of continual rule changes and rev cuts aimed at balancing the field and reducing the green machine’s apparent advantage. In many ways, 2019 was Rea’s best victory yet. Despite being outpaced at the start of the year, he remained patient and finishing second behind Alvaro Bautista paid off as when the Spaniard slipped up. Rea was there to collect the pieces and all those second places meant despite his rival having won 11 consecutive races at the start of the year, the gap was big but attainable for the Kawasaki man.
The World Superbike grid gets a huge shake up for 2020 as rivals set out to de-throne the five-time King and the first person he’ll have to watch out for is new team-mate, Alex Lowes.
Lowes moves to the Kawasaki squad for 2020 after three years with Yamaha and some have wondered whether the 29-year-old Brit could flourish, just like Rea did, by moving to Kawasaki. Lowes has been strong in winter testing, but has a lot to get used to with the Kawasaki deliving its power quite differently to the big-bang Yamaha YZF-R1 he’s been riding for the past three seasons.
Rea’s closest challenger in 2019, Alvaro Bautista, makes the shock switch to Honda as the Japanese marque looks to rejuvenate their World Superbike effort, which has been pitiful in recent years. An all-new Honda Fireblade with aerodynamic wings in a full HRC effort looks the part, but we’re yet to see Bautista or team-mate Leon Haslam on track to compare them to their rivals. Smart money seems to be on Honda being able to fight, but whether they’ll be able to fight from the off remains to be seen. They’ll be focussed on the Suzuka Eight-Hour race too, where Carole Nash ambassador Haslam has a prodigious record.
Bautista’s defection from Ducati leaves an all-British line-up on the impressive Ducati Panigale V4R, which won its first 11 races in World Superbikes in the hands of Bautista. Former MotoGP rider and reigning British Superbike Champion Scott Redding joins Chaz Davies in the Aruba Ducati effort. Redding has had something of a point to prove after being booted out of the MotoGP paddock – close to quitting racing, the former Grand Prix race winner switched to BSB to reboot his career and did so in emphatic style – smashing the opposition to win in his rookie season in what is widely regarded as a tough championship to crack.
Davies will also be looking to return to the front having struggled to transition from the twin cylinder Panigale to its V4 successor, although he showed flashes of his best in 2019, while Redding will be among the pre-season favourites – even though the world championship spec Ducati will feel quite different due to the more sophisticated electronics than the BSB spec machine he bossed last year.
Honda aren’t the only Japanese manufacturer with a new bike for 2020, as Yamaha also line-up with a heavily revised YZF-R1. While the bike isn’t as radically different to the previous model as the Fireblade is, significant engine and aerodynamic improvements are thought to have impressed the factory squad in testing.
Young sensation Toprak Razgatliloglu joins Michael van der Mark in the factory Yamaha effort. The Turkish ace stunned with his first race victory in Magny Cours on a semi-works Kawasaki and is tipped for big things in the future. Yamaha has taken huge steps in the last three years and in 2019 could compete with the Kawasaki at most races, so their aim will be to improve on the third place championship position they’ve secured in the past two years.
With a quick, youngster on the other side of the garage, three-time race winner Michael van der Mark will be hoping he can lead the way for Yamaha in 2020, but the battle among team-mates will be interesting to follow.
There’s an all-new line-up in the secondary Yamaha squad with World Supersport runner-up Federico Caricasulo joining American Garret Gerloff in the GRT effort. The rookies will be looking to enjoy a solid year, while Loris Baz will return on a fifth Yamaha once again under the Ten Kate banner. The Frenchman was pushing towards the podium in 2019 despite only starting halfway through the year.
Former runner-up Eugene Laverty joins 2013 World Champion Tom Sykes in the factory BMW squad as the Shaun Muir-run effort looks to improve on what was a solid debut year for the new S1000RR despite running with a stock engine for most of the campaign. Sykes was on the podium twice towards the end of the year so both he and Laverty will be looking for more rostrum finishes as they seek to challenge at the front.
Former Independent riders champion Xavi Fores returns to the series, joining the Puccetti Kawasaki squad after a year in British Superbikes. The Spaniard was a regular podium challenger before he found himself squeezed out of a seat in 2018, so there’s reason to believe he’ll be able to challenge on the proven satellite Kawasaki package.
Leon Camier had hoped a seat on a Ducati V4R with the Barni squad would help him recover from a tough few years with Honda, but his 2020 season looks set to face a challenging start after a shoulder injury sustained in winter testing. Having undergone surgery in December, he now faces a fight to be fit for winter testing and the opening race.
The series’ format will remain the same for 2020, with three races across a weekend – the feature races split across Saturday and Sunday and additional, ‘Superpole’ race on a Sunday morning.
