BMW are hoping to have Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and teammate Miguel Oliveira back on track at the next round at Misano, according to Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport Sven Blusch. Both riders are currently in the midst of injury lay-offs but, with recoveries progressing well, the target is to see them on track in Round 7 of the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship campaign.
Oliveira suffered a left shoulder tendon injury and fractures to a rib and his scapula, as well as concussion, in a crash at Balaton Park in the Tissot Superpole Race, which forced him to miss the rest of Sunday’s action in Hungary as well as the Czech Round a fortnight ago. Petrucci suffered a fractured coccyx in a huge highside in Race 1 at the Autodrom Most, ruling him out of the rest of the action in Czechia. Both Oliveira and Petrucci are missing the Aragon Round through injury, with Michael van der Mark and Hannes Soomer on the BMW M 1000 RR machines in Spain.
Providing an update on when the #88 and the #9 might be back on track, Blusch said during FP1 at Aragon: “We definitely hope to have them back at Misano. At the beginning of next week, we’ll have more information to know which direction it’s going, but we’re targeting Misano as much as possible.”
At Most, van der Mark replaced Oliveira and that is the case at Aragon as well, as BMW rely on their test rider to step in. With ‘Petrux’ also out of action, the German manufacturer drafted in Soomer. The Estonian rider has plenty of experience in the WorldSBK paddock, mostly in World Supersport where he claimed three rostrums, while he also got a taste of WorldSBK action in 2023 with Honda machinery.
Explaining BMW’s plan for the weekend, Blusch added: “We have to adapt our planning completely for this weekend. We’ll focus on development of our bike, and we have the two perfect riders. Mickey did a lot of development work over the winter so, on that side, I think we are directly into the working process. Hannes had the test at Misano and did a good job there, so we expect a good job from him. He’s a really technically experienced rider and has a lot of experience on our bikes in general. He fitted, in our opinion, quite well and we also wanted to give him a chance, so it was the perfect combination.”
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