Round 10 of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship takes your favourite riders to the Cremona Circuit for the EICMA Italian Round. While 81 WorldSBK rounds have taken place on Italian soil, Cremona Circuit is one of the newest venues on the calendar, with its debut season in 2024 and a fixture on the schedule every season since.
Brembo engineers classify the 3.768 km counter-clockwise circuit as moderately demanding on the brakes, with a difficulty rating of three out of five. Riders clamp down on the brakes 10 times for 25.9 seconds per lap, with four heavy braking zones and nearly a kilometre-long back straight. The circuit so also organised in a unique stadium-style layout, with fans sitting on the circuit’s interior and providing some of the best vistas on the calendar to catch every corner.
DOWN THE BACK STRAIGHT INTO TURN 11
Cremona’s most difficult corner on the braking system is the ‘San Martino’ Turn 11, where riders fly into the left-hand corner from the preceding back straight, where their superbikes reach almost 304km/h. They grip the brake lever, slowing down to 106km/h in just 4.2 seconds across 228 metres, experiencing 1.5g of deceleration over one of the longest braking distances in the Championship. In doing so, riders apply 4.7kg of pressure to the brake lever, raising brake fluid pressure to 10.1 bar.
DIFFERENT STROKES
To best control their powerful WorldSBK machines, riders have a variety of control setups at their disposal. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) has always used an index brake master cylinder; back in 2024, he was the only rider to use it. This year, however, other riders like Tarran Mackenzie (MGM Optical Express Racing) and his teammate Iker Lecuona also use it. Instead of using their forefingers to brake, riders like Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team), Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team), and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) instead opt for the thumb brake master cylinder. Alvaro Bautista (Barni Spark Racing Team) however, uses yet a different system, relying on a rear brake pedal to stop his Ducati Panigale V4 R.
“YOU NEED TO CARRY SPEED AND BE AS QUICK AS YOU CAN IN ORDER TO PREPARE THE REST OF THE LAP”
Champion Stefano Manzi (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) won both races at home on his way to his 2025 WorldSSP Championship-winning season and one of two in his 2024 campaign in the class. Now in WorldSBK, he hopes to bag another set of strong results as he continues to learn his Yamaha R1 in his rookie WorldSBK season. In his opinion, Turn 1 is crucial to get right. Flying down the 400-metre start-finish straight, riders duck in to the left for back-to-back left-hand corners as it flows into the Turn 2 Curva del Lago and to the rest of the lap from there.
On that vital corner, Manzi said: “The most challenging, and the most enjoyable corner is Turn 1. A fast left-hander where you need to carry speed and be as quick as you can to set up the rest of the lap. You have to be very focused and precise to carry as much speed as you can. The fact it’s a fast one also makes it enjoyable because it has a nice flow.”
Immerse yourself in the final rounds of the 2026 season, with the action just around the corner at Cremona, getting rolling on Friday, September 25th. Tune in and see it all with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 70% off!