BMW, Ducati hit by further fuel flow reductions at UK WorldSBK

BMW and Ducati have both been hit with fuel flow reductions ahead of the UK WorldSBK.

Toprak Razgatlioglu leads Nicolo Bulega, 2025 Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK. Credit: Gold and Goose.
Toprak Razgatlioglu leads Nicolo Bulega, 2025 Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK. Credit: Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose

BMW and Ducati have been given fuel flow reductions ahead of this weekend’s UK WorldSBK.

The new reduction is the first one to be applied since the rules changed ahead of the Emilia-Romagna Round in June that changed the reductions from a step-based system to one that WorldSBK calls a "proportional, continuous scale of penalisation”.

In this case, both BMW and Ducati are hit with further 0.5kg/h reductions in maximum fuel flow, equalling what they were given ahead of the Dutch Round and then again ahead of the Czech Round.

It means both manufacturers have now been penalised 1.5kg/h in total, and are now operating at a maximum fuel flow of 46kg/h compared to the standard 47.5kg/h that all six manufacturers (BMW, Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, Bimota, and Kawasaki) began the season with.

The two brands have been the only ones to have been affected by the variable maximum fuel flow rules this year, brought into World Superbike as a replacement for the previous RPM-based performance balancing rules.

BMW and Ducati have taken all but one race win this year, that taken by Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli at Assen. Additionally, all of the victories for BMW and Ducati have been taken by one rider per brand: Toprak Razgatlioglu for the former, and Nicolo Bulega for the Borgo Panigale factory.

Bulega currently leads the WorldSBK riders’ standings by nine points over Razgatlioglu. Third-placed Danilo Petrucci is 113 points off the championship lead.

Minimum weight change for Yamaha R9

The Yamaha R9 has been hit with a 5kg minimum weight increase ahead of the UK Round for WorldSSP, announced alongside the fuel flow changes for BMW and Ducati in WorldSBK.

It means the minimum weight for the R9, which was introduced by Yamaha this year and which presently leads the World Supersport riders’ standings with Stefano Manzi, is raised to 166kg ahead of round seven.

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