Frame Confusion and Injury Woe for BMW WorldSBK
As the reveal of BMW’s WorldSBK contender nears, question marks remain over the legality of the M1000 RR and the fitness of Toprak Razgatlioglu
The Superbike World Championship kicks off at the beautiful Phillip Island circuit next month, and, as you’d expect, all the teams are feverishly finalising their packages for the coming season.
One brand that is on the cusp of revealing its challenger for the coming year is BMW, which has a ceremony planned for January 15 when it will pull the wraps off the bike. It’s likely to be seen as the bike to beat in 2025, not only because of its speed compared to the all-conquering Ducati, which has dominated for the previous few seasons, but also because the rider behind the bubble, Toprak Razgatlioglu, is the reigning champion, who bagged 18 race wins across 2024.
While that would make it seem safe to assume it’ll be another bulldozer year for BMW, there are some notable speedbumps in the road that the Bavarian brand will have to get over. The first is star rider Razgatlioglu, who picked up an injury in a pre-season training accident that has ruled him out of the first test, due to take place at Jerez from 22–23 January.
Razgatlioglu’s inability to ride in the test will no doubt put him on the back foot a little as he heads into the new season, although given the bike is basically the same that he rode in 2024, there shouldn’t be much for him to learn about it. Should there?
That’s where the waters get a little muddied, as question marks hang over the legality of BMW’s 2025 contender, and the confusion stems from the ‘Superconcessions’ rules that it was designed under. Superconcessions were designed to help teams break away from the bottom of the timesheets and allowed them more flexibility to get to the pointy end of the grid. It's a system that has emphatically worked in BMW’s favour, taking it from mid-field also-ran in 2023 to the defacto team to beat in 2024 - although that was no doubt helped by the mercurial talent of Razgatlioglu.
With a target now on BMW’s back, the Superconcessions shouldn’t still apply. Specifically, it’s the frame of the bike which has raised the eyebrows of the other teams and manufacturers, according to GPOne, in that the 2025 BMW will use a frame based on the 2024 machine that had Superconcessions applied to it. If there are Superconcession parts on the new M1000 RR, in the eyes of its rivals, the BMW could potentially be illegal. It’s worth noting that when looking at the press release information relating to the road bike, on which the 2025 race bike should be homologated, there are two frame changes noted: a revised engine mount on the left side and modified flex in the steering head area.
It’s now down to the FIM and Dorna to look into the issue, although reports suggest that the other teams in the championship have already pushed the two bodies to do so. One plus point for BMW is the fact that the 2025 regulations haven’t yet been released, although being seen to tweak them to suit BMW for the coming season would likely antagonise the rest of the non-BMW-mounted grid.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
