2026 FIM Superbike World Championship kicked off the new racing season in Australia

Yamaha’s WorldSBK line-up features two new riders for 2026, including Xavi Vierge who joins the Pata Maxus Yamaha squad, and 2025 WorldSSP Champion Stefano Manzi who steps up with the GYTR GRT Yamaha team, while a new-look WorldSSP line-up set out to defend the titles won by the R9 in its debut year last season.

The Australian event saw ups and downs for Yamaha, with joy in the WorldSSP class with a remarkable 1-2 for the new AS BLU CRU Racing Team with newcomer Albert Arenas and Aldi Satya Mahendra, but in the WorldSBK class things were a little more challenging.

Here’s the verdict from Yamaha Motor Europe’s Road Racing Sporting Manager, double Endurance World Champion Niccolò Canepa:

“We headed to Phillip Island with high expectations, as while we didn’t get a lot of track time this winter, the time we had on track was positive – especially with the two new riders, Xavi Vierge and Stefano Manzi, who impressed in their first tests. “However, we cannot hide that in WorldSBK, the weekend was a lot tougher than we expected. Phillip Island is a unique track, and we use a different tyre specification there than we use at most of the circuits in Europe and we were not quick enough to adapt the settings and fully exploit the potential of the R1.

“There were positives to take from the time in Australia, including Xavi Vierge continuing where he started in pre-season testing to show strong pace on the R1, again placing top Yamaha in the final test and almost every session during the weekend, including Superpole. He had a strong start to Saturday’s Race 1, battling within the top ten until his scary crash at Turn 3, which was very unfortunate and by no means his fault as it was a result of choosing the wrong set-up for the conditions. Fortunately, he was uninjured, but the crash did start a chain of events which hurt the rest of his weekend, including the technical issue in the Superpole race. The good news is he had speed, likes the bike and I am really looking forward to seeing him in the next few rounds in Europe where we are confident we can be more competitive.

“It was a tough weekend for Locatelli at a track where he almost won in 2024. Throughout winter testing he did not have the best feeling with the R1 and lacked a bit of performance, and this continued in Phillip Island. He struggled to find a feeling with the bike, and the team were unable to find a setting to improve that and as a result of this he was slower than he had been at this track in previous years. We know he is a top rider, he fought for third in the championship last year and we expect him to be fighting for podiums when we get back to Europe so it will be important to move on from this challenging weekend.

“There was a lot of attention on Gardner with it being his home round, but the injury he sustained last winter was a bit worse than we expected – he had not recovered 100%. He was a fighter, like always, and did not give up but the injury impacted his performance. Luckily we have another month before round two, so he has more time to recover and regain his fitness to fight further up the field.

“As a rookie, Manzi impressed in pre-season testing and this continued in the final test on Monday and Tuesday, but he had a big crash on the second day which saw him lose some feeling. There were positive signs, such as in the Superpole race when he crossed the line first Yamaha. With Stefano, we are not looking at the position at the beginning of the season because we know how tough it is in Superbike and we are happy about his performance overall during the weekend.

“We leave Australia with work to do in WorldSBK. Our performance was not as strong as it has been at this track in previous years, and this was due to a combination of factors. We cannot deny that mistakes were made, and we did not see the maximum potential from either the bike or the riders. We will sit down with our teams ahead of Portimão to rectify this and improve our racing operation a whole.

“In WorldSSP, we saw a great sporting story! Late last year we agreed for the AS BLU CRU Racing Team to join Yamaha and with everything being a bit last minute, it is fair to say when they arrived to Phillip Island they were not 100% ready and had had limited track time in testing, so the focus in Australia was to get some good track time in order to be ready for Round 2 in Portimão. However, it was impressive how quickly Albert Arenas adapted to the R9 and he showed good speed all weekend. He was very happy with the bike and he was able to finish top Yamaha in Race 1 with fourth place, fighting for the podium, before winning Race 2 after a clever decision to start the race on slick tyres. After the strong weekend, Arenas now leads the WorldSSP championship so a great start to the year.

“Another fantastic story is that of Aldi Mahendra. He started the races from last after a technical problem in the Superpole, and in Lap 2 of Race 2 he was already leading the race, making some incredible overtakes on slick tyres on a damp track, which shows his skill and potential. We were very happy to see this, as Aldi is a rider who progressed through the BLU CRU programme, won WorldSSP300 and is now on the podium in the Supersport class. Not only this, but it is also the first WorldSSP podium in history for an Indonesian rider – demonstrating the success of the BLU CRU programme in offering young riders the opportunity to realise their full potential on the world stage, regardless of background.   We are looking forward to seeing what he can do in the next few races!

“For Can Öncü it was also a positive weekend, he made no mistakes and showed his speed at a track which is not particularly his favourite. He was fast all weekend and in Race 1 he was caught up in the accident of another rider and lost the top two guys at the beginning of the race, but he was fighting for the podium until the last lap. In Race 2, he was also fast and I believe he could have fought for the podium or won the race but he made the choice, like the rest of the front two rows, to go on wet tyres and this turned out to be the wrong decision and he had to make a pit stop. At the chequered flag, he was the best rider who started on wet tyres, so he’d done a good job but the riders who started on slicks had a big advantage.

“Before Round 2, the WorldSBK teams have a test in Portimão which will be important as we did not have a lot of track time this winter. It will be an important test for all our riders before the European season begins in Portugal at the end of next month, especially after our tough start to the year.

“Round 2 will also see the introduction of the all-new Sportbike class, and there is a lot of attention on this as there are many manufacturers involved, so we look forward to seeing how our riders and teams perform in this exciting new class.”