After taking fifth place in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship in 2025, Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) put pen to paper with the defending Champions and set off on a new mission to seek success with the German manufacturer. ‘Petrux’ is happy with his progress adapting to the bike, and with results like today’s, where he closed out Day 1 in P1, it’s safe to say he has a reason to smile.

EXCITED FOR 2026: “I have to say, it’s a really good bike”

Some speculated that Toprak Razgatlioglu's back-to-back World Championships were solely a testament to his skill, and that the BMW M 1000 RR’s success was primarily down to his skill as a rider. While Razgatlioglu’s skill is prodigious, positive results such as Petrucci’s Day 1 P1 at Jerez’s January test, thanks to his 1’52.976s tim,e show that the BMW bike is also something special.

On his first Day of testing this year, Petrucci said: “It wasn’t the best day weather-wise, honestly, but it was good to lay some laps down in the wet on the new bike. It was useful in that way, and I have to say, it’s a really good bike. On the wet I felt immediately very good, and the fact that I was leading the timesheet makes me really happy. Unfortunately, I crashed, but I was still the fastest, so I’m happy. I hope the weather will improve tomorrow. It was the first lap with a new set of tyres, there was strong wind, and a lot of water on track, so it might just be that the tyre wasn’t quite hot enough.”

CROSSING T’S AND DOTTING I’S: “You have to be fast in this Championship, but to be the fastest you need to care about all the details”

While the last two seasons of WorldSBK racing have primarily been BMW vs. Ducati at the front of the pack, the two bikes are rather different; jumping from one to the other and maintaining the same level of success is no easy feat. However, Petrucci has so far shown his talent in doing just that on Day 1. He and the rest of the field need more time to see how they can progress with their setups before too much can be said, but what is clear is that on the first day of 2026 testing, #9 showed lots of potential with his new bike.

On what he feels must come next, Petrucci said: “I need to spend more time on the bike, it’s for sure a different bike than what I’m used to, but I like it. We need more time on the dry. You have to be fast in this Championship, but to be the fastest, you need to care about all the details. The adaptation to the bike is coming along, but we need more time on the dry. We will see how the weather is tomorrow. I don’t know if the track will dry in one day, and we don’t want to waste a day on a track not in perfect conditions. We will see, but for the moment we just need to ride with the bike we have.”

Catch Petrucci in his first year with BMW with the WorldSBK VideoPass!