Sergio Garcia gets World Superbike call-up

This week’s Aragon WorldSBK test will see Sergio Garcia make his WorldSBK debut.

Garcia will get his first taste of World Superbike with the Honda HRC team on Monday at MotorLand Aragon, where some of the teams from the production derivative series will test ahead of the first round after the summer break at Magny-Cours on 5–7 September.

The 22-year-old Valencian will ride in place of Iker Lecuona, who suffered a double arm fracture at the Hungarian Round in July.

Garcia has experience with Honda but only in Moto3 and in the JuniorGP series, when it was the Moto3 Junior World Championship.

The two-time Moto2 race winner made his return to racing this weekend at the Hungarian MotoGP, racing in the Moto2 class with the IntactGP team and taking a 16th-place finish.

He had been out of action before that since the Aragon Grand Prix, after which he split with the QJMotor Frinsa MSi team he won two races with last year.

Garcia also announced over the weekend that he will be joining the Gresini Racing Moto2 team next year along with Alonso Lopez, with whom Garcia was teammates in the 2019 Moto3 World Championship at the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda team.

The Gresini news means that Garcia’s Aragon test cannot be viewed as an audition for a 2026 World Superbike ride, but if Lecuona is unable to make a return to racing at Magny-Cours Garcia could be in-line to step in if he makes a good enough impression over the next two days alongside Xavi Vierge.

Although he has experience of Aragon from his Moto3 and Moto2 career, Garcia has never excelled at MotorLand, scoring points only twice in six attempts – both times in the Moto3 class with seventh in 2019 and 13th in 2022.