Josh Brookes missing “quite big amount of performance” ahead of 2026 BSB opener

Josh Brookes has admitted he is missing “quite a big amount of performance” after this year’s BSB preseason tests.

Brookes headed into this year’s two official tests hoping to cure the corner entry issues he experienced in his first year aboard the latest generation of the Honda Fireblade last year.

However, after the final BSB test at Oulton Park the DAO Racing rider feels he is still a way off from where he was hoping to be in terms of performance.

“We’ve made some good in-roads,” said Brookes, speaking to Crash.net at the end of the Oulton Park test, “but to summarise right now we’re still missing quite a big amount of performance. 

“So, it’s not just as pleasing as I would’ve anticipated or hoped for at this point when the next time we’re on-track is going to be an event. I know it’s super-hard during a season to develop anything because you’re so restricted with tyres and track time that you just can’t really explore anywhere but what you know works.”

Brookes says that he thinks he and the DAO team have improved over where they were last year but are still missing out in some places, notably in one-lap speed.

“Fortunately, [...] our average over the last couple of days has been stronger than what it was last year,” he said.

“I think where we’re missing still is that crucial one-lap speed, which is important for qualifying – you get a bad qualifying, you have a difficult race, so it has a big effect on the whole game. 

“We’re not totally wrote off, there’s still a lot of positives of what we’ve done, we’ve found some areas where there’s been improvements. 

“It’s just tying it all into one package.

“It seems like you gain in one area, lose in another, and it’s trying to find a way to make it a combination, where there’s no losses – then I think we’d have a package suitable to challenge nearer the front, whereas at the moment we haven’t been able to secure that.”

The Australian added that some of the characteristics of the Honda and how it reacts to certain setup changes are unexpected.

“There’s a couple of things right now that are a bit frustrating,” he explained.

“When we shorten the bike from the rear, for example, that normally puts more weight on the rear, normally gives more grip, makes the bike steer better. Every time we shorten the bike we lose grip and it’s a bit frustrating because it’s not following a normal pattern of what other bikes would normally do. 

“So, it makes it hard to make the next step when the last [change] you made didn’t follow the plan, it then sort of railroads the testing programme.”

Brookes added: “You gain over years, with experience, expectation. Often in my racing, what you expect from a bike, it doesn’t transpire into that – so it’s not uncommon for that to happen. 

“But for such a basic change that has, for such a big variety of motorcycles, always been the same result when you make the same change, for it not to follow that pattern is a bit like ‘This is odd’. 

“So, there’s a bit more to understand about that in itself, but that’s just one aspect, there’s lots of things happening about the bike, that’s just one change. 

“So, we’re sort of stuck now, we’ve made everything we can up to this point, so we’ll just have to come here for the race and continue unfortunately doing a little bit more fine tuning than actually just getting on with the race weekend.”

Partly as a result of this apparent oddity about the CBR1000RR-R, at least in the experience of Brookes, although improvements have been made in terms of corner entry and exit during preseason he is now lacking turning.

“It’s [corner entry] an area we have improved, we’ve definitely improved the bike under brakes and exiting the corner, where we’ve lost is the turning of the bike in the middle of the turn,” he said.

“Last year the most weak [area] was the corner entry and we were always like desperate trying to stay with the group, and compromising the corner and consistency because you were over-riding the entry. 

“We have improved the bike in that zone, but it’s still – even with the improvements – the weak point. 

“We’ve definitely made a step in the right direction but not completed the circle of changes.

“Exit of the turn is stronger, we’re not wheelieing as much – we’re still wheelieing but not as much as last year, so there are some obvious improvements but as an example we’ve lost some steering from the bike. 

“So, we’re trying to find a way to make the bike steer better without losing that entry consistency and exit anti-wheelie effect. It’s just a bit of a balancing game at the moment and I feel like we’re kind of spinning plates trying to perform tricks.”