Peter Hickman team “much more prepared” for 2026 after “rushed” 2025

Peter Hickman thinks his 8Ten Racing BMW team is “much more prepared” for 2026 than it was a year ago.

The 2025 season was 8Ten’s first, competing both in road racing and in BSB. It was also a hastily prepared project by Hickman and Davey Todd, who started forming the team only in the beginning of the year after the FHO team pulled out of the British Superbike Championship.

The late start to preparing the team meant that Todd and Hickman were unable to ride their race bikes until the final day of the last BSB test of the preseason, in the case of Todd, and on the first day of practice at the opening round in Hickman’s case.

In comparison, this year the team is already formed and has a year of experience behind it, which leads Hickman to believe that he and Todd will be able to enjoy better results in 2026, after a 2025 season that saw victories on the roads (at least for Todd; Hickman crashed at the Isle of Man sustaining injuries that kept him off the bike for several months) but struggles on the short circuits, where the team's best results were two 13th places from Hickman.

“We’re actually really looking forward to the 2026 season,” said Hickman.

“Obviously last year was almost a rushed year for us one way or another and of course I had a big injury as well. 

“So for 2026 we are much, much more prepared as a team. 

“Both me and Davey [Todd] as well have got much more of a handle on what‘s actually going on and the team’s working really, really well. We’re happy with the bikes, we’re happy with everything for the season. 

“We have a full British Superbike season to look forward to, as well as the North West 200, the Isle of Man TT, and maybe even one or two other races as well. 

“Obviously we did Macau in the last year where we finished one and two. 

“Overall, last year was more of a building year, as it ended up having to be, and then this year we can really kind of hit the ground running, much, much more prepared and really looking forward to it.”