Jerez WorldSBK test marks last chance to “learn” for Bimota before 2026

The final WorldSBK test of 2025 takes place this week in Jerez for several manufacturers, including for Bimota.

While for some World Superbike manufacturers, like Honda and BMW, the test will be the start of its 2026 campaign, Bimota is among the factories – like Yamaha – who were already on-track in Jerez in October after the final round of the 2025 season.

As a result, this week’s test (26–27 November) will be a continuation of the work that started in October, and Alex Lowes is expecting some new pieces, and new “ideas”, for this final test of 2025.

“It’s been nice to have a little break after the season, but now I’m ready to get back to some track action with the guys in the team,” said Alex Lowes.

“We have no new bike to develop this year, so it’s more of a constant evolution. 

“I know we have some parts from Showa and also new ideas from my crew chief Pere [Riba] so that we can work in the areas we struggled with in 2025. 

“Our target before the winter break begins is to learn as much as possible about the areas we must keep looking into to improve the KB998 Rimini, so that we are ready for the start of 2026. 

“Jerez is a circuit we know well, so it’s a good place to test new parts and confirm if they are better. 

“Hopefully, the weather is acceptable and we can enjoy plenty of laps. Our plan is to ride for one day of the test.”

Axel Bassani added that the test will be “similar” to the one after the final race of 2025 in October.

“We are still making plans of exactly what we will do in Jerez, but in some ways it should be similar to the last test we did there, immediately after the final race of the season,” he said.

“I think this will be the last 2025 test before the winter break, so we will try to finish with a good feeling and try to understand where we need to focus our development programme on during the winter break. 

“We will try to work with as little stress as possible. We will be calm and try to focus on the difficult areas we found in the 2025 season.”

As has been the case in most of Bimota’s tests in 2025, the two days will see the riding split between test rider Xavi Fores and the two race riders, with Fores riding on Wednesday before Lowes and Bassani are on-track on Thursday.

“This is our first outing with some basic points we have developed to try to make steps ahead in 2026 with the KB998 Rimini,” Roda said.

“We plan to start with Xavi Fores on the first day and then with both Alex and Axel on the second day. 

“Basically, we will check and evaluate some points on the bike with Fores, before confirming some things with our riders, due to the 10-day test limitation rule. 

“The weather forecast seems not so bad, and I’m sure with many riders on track, we will see promising lap times – which should make for a nice show during this test.”