Ryan Vickers hails “huge” Honda BSB progress but still has “a lot of problems”

Ryan Vickers’ first round as a Honda BSB rider saw him make little impact on the leading positions, but he feels he made “huge progress” over the three days.

Vickers went 8-7-8 across the three races, consistent results but a long way behind the leader and a long way off where a rider who has won multiple races at BSB level will feel he should be, especially after a year in World Superbike that he thinks helped him improve as a rider.

Despite the apparent lack of progress from the results sheet, Vickers actually feels he and the Honda Racing UK team took steps forward compared to the Oulton Park test, and throughout the race weekend on 2–4 May. However, worn tyres bring out the issues he has been trying to fix, so his race pace dropped to mid-1m34s by the end of Race 3, in which race winner Kyle Ryde set a 1m33.0s on the penultimate lap .

“We’ve made huge progress for this race weekend, coming straight in from the test, still wasn’t enough,” Ryan Vickers said, speaking to Crash.net after Race 3 at Oulton Park.

“We’ve made progress through the weekend, especially today for the sprint race and the main race, we made a huge step. 

“But we’re okay when we have a new tyre, but as soon as we get to lap six, lap seven, I get a huge drop and then just get a lot of problems: all of the vibration and stuff like that comes back. 

“I’m happy because we’re top Honda, so that’s one thing, we’ve done the fastest ever lap a Honda’s done around here on a less-grippy tyre than what the other riders have had and we’re on the same bike as what the other riders have been on, so to do that is good. 

“But, unfortunately, in 2026 there’s some very fast bikes out there and that’s [performance compared to previous Honda riders] not good enough to be even inside the top-five. 

“So, we need to keep grafting, keep checking what we can do to improve. It’s not going to be easy, I’m just hoping that when we go to other tracks the gap is slightly smaller.”

Vickers explained that the Honda’s weakness compared to the Ducati is primarily about acceleration.

“I was behind him at the start of the race [Race 3], Kyle [Ryde] was one bike in front of me,” Vickers said.

“I can see the way that they’re riding. The problem is we can’t put the power down that they can, so we’re losing so much acceleration time, they’re just so much faster in that acceleration period. 

“It’s not even to do with the maximum power that’s in the bike, it’s just that they’re putting the power down with the wings, with the V4, with all of these things – the same as the Yamaha now. 

“Me and Jason [O’Halloran] have both commented that even the Yamaha’s pulling away from us on the straight, but it’s got wings now when we didn’t have wings when we rode it. Even that’s accelerating faster. 

“So, it’s not easy to match. 

“Tracks where you don’t get so much wheelie, like Donington and places like that, are going to be easier because you’re not fighting wheelie all the time. 

“Somewhere like here [Oulton Park] is very difficult for wheelie. 

“I think it’ll get easier. We’re making the bike better, I’m learning the bike, the team are learning me and we’ll keep fighting.”

Vickers was more comfortable on the Fireblade when he rode it at the Donington test at the beginning of April compared to the two times he’s visited Oulton Park with the bike, but he’s wary that the introduction of several Ducati riders into the mix who weren’t present at the Donington test – such as Kyle Ryde, Scott Redding, and Glenn Irwin – could mean that his position at round two is no better than at round one.

“I was comfortable, we still had some problems but a lot better than here,” Vickers said of his experience at the Donington test.

“So, I think the gap will be smaller, but there were no Ducatis at that track, so there’s another four or five people that are going to be there.

“The Bimotas have got faster, the riders are riding really well now – Joe’s [Talbot] getting more experienced, he’s up there now, so there’s potentially another six bikes that you can put in front of me when I was third – so that could be seventh or eighth again. 

“So, we’ve got to keep pushing hard. It’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to be trying our best and hopefully we can bridge the gap.”