The 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship campaign looks like it’s going to be one of the closest ever with six manufacturers all staking their claim this season. After Honda ended last season strongly, including taking a rostrum at Estoril with Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC), they will be hoping both the #7 and teammate Xavi Vierge can start the new campaign strongly. It’s been a big change over the winter for the Japanese manufacturer, with a new suspension supplier coming in, as Honda looks for a positive start but also aiming to keep their momentum going.

In recent seasons, Honda have tended to start a season well or end a season well, but rarely have they managed to start and end a campaign well. In 2024, they were well off the pace when the season kicked off but made big steps throughout the season to be in a position where they could challenge for rostrums in the final few rounds; something they achieved with Lecuona standing on the podium at the Circuito Estoril. In testing, despite the #7’s absence at Jerez through injury, it has looked as though Honda will start the season roughly where it ended 2024: a consistent presence in the top ten, perhaps challenging for the occasional podium. The next question is whether they can do in 2025 what they did in 2024 and take big steps throughout the season.

For the 2022 season, Honda had an overhaul of riders and suppliers, bringing in Lecuona and Vierge while opting to move to Showa suspension. There’s been some change over the 2025 winter too, although less extreme as the rider line-up stays the same, as they move back to Ohlins suspension; the brand they used when they returned to WorldSBK as a full-factory team in 2020. It shows Honda’s quest for success is still ongoing but they’re leaving no stone unturned as they look to celebrate success in WorldSBK.

Vierge has been Honda’s benchmark throughout January testing at Jerez and Portimao, with Lecuona missing the Jerez test and not being fully fit at Portimao through a winter training injury. Vierge was seventh on Day 1 in the dry in Spain and second in the wet on Day 2, before finishing P7 on Day 1 at Portimao and ninth on Day 2. Lecuona only tested in Portugal but was ahead of Vierge in the wet, although in the dry, the #97 was the faster of the two.

Both riders, throughout winter, gave their thoughts about the season ahead. Vierge stated at Jerez: “I’m really excited for a new season. My feeling was that, compared to last year, the base setup of the bike is a little bit better compared to 2024, which, at the end of the season, was quite good. I’m really looking forward to starting this new season and I hope to be fighting inside the top six and to make this last step to fight for podiums regularly.”

Lecuona added when speaking at Portimao: “The first goal is to be 100% ready, mentally and physically. If I’m honest, the first goal is to give the same performance that we had for most of the end of last year; every race we learnt and improved. Finally, we got a podium. I don’t want to say, ‘every race on the podium’, but I want to be there, the last one of the first group like last year.”

Team Manager Jose Escamez was optimistic of success in 2025, saying in Spain: “I’m confident that we can keep the momentum that we’ve had since mid-season of 2024. I expect that we can keep improving which we’ve been doing lately. I think that it’s not easy, of course, as the other manufacturers are going to be really strong as they have always proved. At the moment, I’m positive and I’m confident. The target is always to win but that’s a really hard part of this job. As long as we can keep improving every time, it’s going to be good.”

During the team’s season launch video, Escamez also revealed that there would be closer ties between Honda Europe and the manufacturer’s test team. He stated when asked about European facilities: “Actually, we’ve had a logistical base in Europe since the very beginning of this project. It’s true that this year we are going to increase this collaboration with Honda Europe, which will be more involved with our test team and the development of the bike. We are putting in extra effort with the aim of speeding up our work and the way we reach our goals.”

WorldSBK’s most eagerly-anticipated new entry for many years, the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team, held its pre-season launch at the bimota factory HQ itself, located in Rimini, on Thursday 6 February.

The BbKRT squad finally unveiled its full public image for the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship season, with the cutting-edge bimota KB998 Rimini being displayed in its full race livery for the very first time.

As well as the vibrantly-coloured machine itself the riding line up of Britain’s Alex Lowes and Italy’s own Axel Bassani showed off their new riding apparel in the team’s striking new colours.

On the specially designed stage at the Italian based marque’s home factory important figures from the BbKRT Team, bimota and Kawasaki – together with all its partners, including sport and industrial collaborators Motul and Showa and Square Bricks Offices – took turns to explain more details of the overall project, and demonstrate some more aspects about the unique new KB998 Rimini.

Mr. Shigemi Tanaka, Chairman and Managing Director bimota S.p.A, stated: “To tell the truth, the idea of ​​participating in WorldSBK with a bimota body and Kawasaki engine had been around since Kawasaki and bimota first started talking behind closed doors before the announcement of the collaboration in 2019. The time had come to further promote bimota’s philosophy and brand to the world, and the WorldSBK was the obvious venue for this. In 2023, bimota and Kawasaki jointly produced a prototype that would become the basis for the KB998 Rimini, and after getting a good feeling from running it, the go-ahead was given, and here we are today. By participating in WorldSBK with bimota as BbKRT, we want to convey the historic bimota brand, technology, heritage and philosophy to long-time bimota fans. We want the younger generation with a bright future in the world of road racing, and the generation that doesn’t know bimota, to know about bimota.”

Mr. Pierluigi Marconi, Chief Operating Officer of bimota, stated: “Today is a really exciting day. Finally, after many years, bimota can come back to the Superbike World Championship. Just two weeks after this presentation of the new bike and the BbKRT racing team we will start the first race. Like everybody can imagine, this is something that bimota was thinking could happen, but nobody could really believe. Finally, it has arrived. It’s incredible. Also, we can restart our ‘old history. When we began, we just made motorcycles for endurance races. Our aim was to take part in competition and then present the bike for production. Then we could sell the bikes for every customer to enjoy. After 50 years we can come back to our history, with the help of Kawasaki and the Provec team. It is so exciting.”

Mr. Keiichi Morohara, Kawasaki Racing Plan Manager from Kawasaki Motors, Ltd., stated: “Up until now, we have developed everything in-house. And in the past, we have been able to achieve the great feat of winning six consecutive championships. Now this new project is truly a big challenge for us. The KB998 Rimini is a steel trellis frame, as opposed to our aluminium twin-spar frame. However, we have already been able to confirm its capability using the Kawasaki engine and electronic package. We are really excited with this new direction in terms of chassis development thanks to our collaboration with bimota.”

Mr. Steve Guttridge, Kawasaki Racing Plan Manager from Kawasaki Motors Europe, stated: “2025 is a landmark season for Kawasaki with no less than three Official riders in WorldSBK. The BbKRT project is a bold and calculated step. In terms of sporting ambitions our natural goal is the podium and we focus fully on achieving that at every race. But on a wider scale we are happy to work alongside bimota to bring such a famous name back to the WorldSBK grid and in doing so – provide a worldwide visibility for this iconic brand that will ultimately reward both current and legions of new bimota fans.”

Mr. Guim Roda, Team Manager bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team, stated: “Our amazing staff and infrastructure created to win Championships remains in place. Also our passion for development and innovation. With this new project we add the design heritage and incredible technical skills of bimota – this has the potential to be a winning combination.”

Alex Lowes, BbKRT Rider, stated: “Firstly I think the colours look awesome for 2025! I am really excited to see what bimota and Kawasaki can achieve this year. The passion and effort from all the team to get this new project up and running has been massive, so I really appreciate that. From the first laps on the bike I’ve felt good, so my target is to build on 2024 and fight for the best results possible.”

Axel Bassani, BbKRT Rider, stated: “Today we showed the new livery of the bike, our new team and everything. It is nice because we are at home, near to where I live, so I think it is special. This is a completely new adventure for everyone, for Kawasaki, bimota and for us the riders. The bike’s livery is old school but also with something new. I think everybody will like the new livery a lot. I also hope to show in the races that we can stay at the front and have the possibility to go very far with this bike. We want to have good races, good results and enjoy everything with the team.”