Eugene Laverty: I want this bike to be on top of the podium

Former MotoGP and current World Superbike rider Eugene Laverty looks ahead to a new season in the championship that will see him get his first taste of the new BMW M 1000 RR. 

In a sit down interview with BMW Motorrad Motorsport on social media, Laverty discussed going into his second year with BMW albeit in another team, and how he hopes to reap the benefits of the work Tom Sykes and he put in last season. 

Both rider's suffered from various reliability issues in 2020, but still showed the potential of the S 1000 RR. However, with BMW bringing in their upgraded M 1000 RR machine, optimism is high all-around.

Laverty was quick to mention his determination of staying with BMW for another year by saying: "To ride the same bike again for the second successive year is really critical in World Superbike right now.

"We just have to look at how the Championship has panned out for the last six years where Jonny Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) has been champion again and again with the same manufacturer.

"Chaz Davies has been with Ducati for so many years. So you really need that continuity if you want to reach the top. You can’t just arrive and wam-bam and be there. The key for me was to continue with BMW and the bike will be another step up this year."

Laverty has not yet tested the new bike, but will get an opportunity at the official test in Barcelona before the season begins. 

It is fair to say 2020 was very much a learning season for BMW that required taking the good with the bad. One they will definitely be aiming to improve upon.

Laverty added: "I don’t want to make any predictions until I’ve ridden this new M bike in testing. But I am optimistic because I was really starting to get to grips with the bike towards the end of the year.

"I got that pole position at Magny-Cours. The thing was last year, I know it was a short season for everybody, but we really decided quite early on to take one step backwards to take two step forwards.

"We spoke about making the bike more user friendly. We knew the bike was strong over one lap, we’d seen that previously, but if we wanted to make the bike strong for 20 laps then we really had to really go backwards a little bit to take away that all-out performance to make the bike more consistent over 20 laps and we did that towards the end of the year.

"I’m in it for the long game, I want this bike to be on top of the podium. All the work we did last year, hopefully we can reap the rewards of that in 2021."

With Sykes and Michael Van Der Mark in the factory team, Laverty will be competing for RC Squadra Corse, while another former MotoGP rider Jonas Folger will be on the sole remaining fourth BMW with Bonovo MGM Racing.