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There are several big seats without riders confirmed for the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship grid. Andrea Locatelli's (Pata Maxus Yamaha) teammate for next season is not yet known, and there’s currently a vacant seat at the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team too, while the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team have not announced either of their riders for next season. Speaking during FP1 at Balaton Park, Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport, Sven Blusch, and Yamaha Motor Europe Road Racing Sporting Manager, Niccolo Canepa, spoke about next year’s line-up.

WHO TAKES RAZGATLIOGLU’S SPOT AT BMW? Potentially two seats available…

Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) had his future confirmed leading up to Misano, with ‘El Turco’ heading to MotoGP with Pramac Racing Yamaha. That leaves one vacant seat at BMW for 2026, while current teammate Michael van der Mark doesn’t have his future announced yet, meaning there are potentially two seats up for grabs with the German manufacturer.

Talking during FP1 in Hungary, Blusch spoke about BMW’s future line-up: “We are not talking about contracts at the moment. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can announce something, but in particular, we are not talking about things which have not been signed. To be honest, we are looking in all paddocks, we have a few riders in our minds, and the final decision is yet to be reached. In the summer break we will know more.”

TWO SEATS AT YAMAHA: who will race alongside Locatelli and Gardner?

Down the pit lane in blue, two of Yamaha’s four factory seats have riders for next year. Locatelli signed a two-year extension with Yamaha to remain with the team until the end of 2027, as did Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), who stays with the GRT Yamaha squad with his Yamaha contract. Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) has a contract until the end of this season, as does Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), with no update on their respective futures.

Giving the update regarding Yamaha, Canepa stated: “A decision still hasn't been made about the other two bikes, but it's very important to Yamaha the program of developing our young talents through the Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup, WorldSSP300, WorldSSP, to step up our young talents to arrive to WorldSBK at some point. So, promoting a rider from another category is one of the options, but no decision has been made. The headache comes when you have no one competitive in the class. Luckily, the R9 is performing very well, and we have many riders fighting for the podiums, not just two. This is very good for Yamaha and our project, so it makes our lives a bit easier when we have many strong riders. There isn't really a deadline for when we will make our decision on who will be our riders.”

With ‘promoting a rider from another category’ an option for Yamaha, the WorldSSP standings make for good reading for the Iwata brand. Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) currently leads the standings ahead of Can Oncu (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Team), who joined Yamaha in the category this season. There are three Yamaha riders in the top ten of the Championship standings, with Lucas Mahias (GMT94-YAMAHA) in sixth.

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