Staying in UK makes WorldSBK transition “difficult” for British riders - Ryan Vickers

2025 WorldSBK rookie Ryan Vickers says his move to Italy has helped “in the transition” from BSB to the World Championship.

Vickers joined the Italian Motocorsa Ducati team for this year, a team which had only run Italian riders in its time in World Superbike with Axel Bassani in 2021–23 and then the Italian-Venezuelan Michael Ruben Rinaldi in 2024.

The nine-time BSB race winner followed Tarran Mackenzie and Bradley Ray as recent graduates from British to World Championship. Ray left WorldSBK to return to BSB for this season, and Mackenzie has departed the MIE Honda team since the latest round at Misano.

For Vickers, his decision to move to Italy at the end of last year, to be close to the workshop of the Motocorsa team, has been beneficial in his adaptation to the World Championship.

“I think it helps the transition in the sense of having a relationship with the team,” Ryan Vickers told WorldSBK.com.

“A few other British riders have come over and given WorldSBK a go and it seems like it would be hard to have a relationship with the team because they only see them on a race weekend.

“But it's not the same. If you only see a friend once every two weeks, or you try to become friends with someone and you only ever see him once every two or three weeks, it's quite difficult.

“If you see someone three times a week and you go motocross riding with them or you pop into the workshop to try a new seat pad, you gain a really strong relationship, more of a personal relationship, which helps especially being an English rider on an Italian team.

“I'm glad that I've done that. I think that will help in our progression.

“I'm really happy that I've moved out here.”

The Italian weather is also of benefit to Vickers – not necessarily for a day at the spiaggia, but for training.

“Another massive advantage of moving out here is the heat,” he said.

“I was in the gym [one] morning and the air temperature in the gym was 38 degrees [Celsius].

“If I was living in the UK, I see people saying ‘It’s roasting hot and it's 27 degrees’.

“That was a hot day for me last year. But it only gets down to 29 [Celsius] at the coldest time of night here.”