MotoGP history maker joins Chinese factory’s WorldSBK project

CFMoto has reportedly signed Italian former Moto3 rider Matteo Ferrari as a test rider in its fledgling WorldSBK project.

Ferrari is, in a sense, a historical figure in motorcycle racing and within the MotoGP paddock, having won the inaugural MotoE World Cup in 2019.

Since then, he has continued to campaign in MotoE, through its transition into a World Championship and now into the category’s conclusion.

With MotoE off the cards, many of the riders who had made it a regular part of their programme in recent years have looked elsewhere for 2026. 2023 champion Mattia Casadei, for example, will race in World Supersport next year on a Ducati Panigale V2 run by Davide Giugliano’s D34G team; and 2025 MotoE Champion Alessandro Zaccone will race in WorldSSP, too, on a Ducati for the Althea team.

For Ferrari, there are also WorldSSP plans, the Italian set to ride a Ducati for the WRP team as teammate to Petr Svoboda.

But he is also a part of a new World Superbike project – in particular, that belonging to the Chinese manufacturer CFMoto, according to Italian publication GPOne, which also reports that CFMoto has obtained the contribution of a former Ducati engineer for its chassis development.

Ferrari’s role, in this case, is to develop the CFMoto V4SR-RR into a bike fit for World Championship competition. The bike, unveiled at this year’s EICMA show, is due to arrive in dealerships in 2027, and is expected to begin in competition in the same year.

The arrival of CFMoto into World Superbike would make it the fourth Chinese manufacturer to be present in the WorldSBK paddock after QJMotor, Kove, and ZXMoto, the latter joining WorldSSP for the first time in 2026.

For CFMoto itself, it would mark its first racing project with machinery designed, built, and developed by the factory itself, having – until now – competed in the Moto3 World Championship but with re-branded KTM bikes.