Bimota WorldSBK target “not podiums, it’s the top five”: “We need some more power”

Bimota WorldSBK Team Principal Guim Roda says the Bimota needs “some more horsepower” to challenge WorldSBK’s leading manufacturers.

Bimota re-entered WorldSBK this season with Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani aboard the new KB998, with – as has been well-covered by now – a chassis and aerodynamic design coming from the Italian factory but with the engine from the Kawasaki ZX-10RR that the Provec-run squad had fielded as the official Kawasaki entry until 2024.

The result of this combination is a bike with a different character from the ZX-10RR but with one of the Kawasaki’s limitations still inherent in the bike, that being a lack of top-end horsepower.

“We need to continue developing the bike; the target is not podiums, it is the top five,” BbKRT Team Principal Roda told WorldSBK.com.

“We need to be realistic in the face of high-level competition, so we will continue to work, especially to explore solutions that we can bring in the future – in 2026 and 2027, in conjunction with the production bike – to enhance the bike's performance.

“There are many aspects we can improve.

“The engine is difficult to improve with how the rules are set up, so this is something that must be linked with mass production and superconcessions, but we can not hide the reality that we need some more horsepower to help us compete with the other manufacturers.

“Kawasaki is helping us with that.”

Despite the evident lack of straight line performance, Roda has been pleased with the performance of the KB998 and the factory Bimota team in the first half of the project’s first season in World Superbike.

“[I think we’ve been doing] Really good, honestly, we have been able to perform a little better than we had expected,” he said.

“The way we developed this bike with Bimota and Kawasaki over the last year has provided us with a package that’s ready to go on track. It hasn’t been easy.

“Alex [Lowes] and Axel [Bassani] have been riding incredibly, achieving good results, and a podium at Misano has been a very good confirmation of this. Now we need to keep working.

“It’s a big satisfaction for all the team, but especially for the Bimota guys who have been involved with the factory for a long time, many years, up and down through good and bad moments with Bimota over the last 20 years.

“So, for them to be in the Championship and achieve this incredible result, I know they’re much happier than the rest of the team, and we’re happy to see their enthusiasm.”