Van Der Mark expected more from new BMW despite ‘good progress’

Michael Van Der Mark believes new WorldSBK team-mate Scott Redding can help ‘develop’ the BMW M 1000 RR after spending two successful seasons at Ducati.

Robert Jones

03 Dec 2021

Michael van der Mark, Indonesian WorldSBK 2021
© Gold and Goose

Michael van Der Mark has claimed he expected more from the all-new BMW M 1000 RR, despite making good progress throughout the 2021 WorldSBK season.

In fact, Van Der Mark took BMW’s first WorldSBK win in eight years during the Superpole race at Portimao last October, however, it still wasn’t enough to keep the Dutch rider fully satisfied with his first season at the German manufacturer.

Van Der Mark alluded to the team ‘only making small steps’ as the season went on, which was not enough given the 2021 season was one of the more competitive in Superbike history.

When asked to assess his first year with the German manufacturer, Van Der Mark said: "Well, not as many podiums as we hoped for of course. But the Superbike championship this year has been so close, so tight, with so many riders battling for the front.

"Also coming with the new M 1000 RR we expected more, but we can only make small steps at a time, and we just need more time to develop the bike.

"Overall, I think we made good progress during the year. As a rider you always want more but luckily next year is coming soon."

BMW finished fourth in the teams’ championship - more than 250 points behind third placed Kawasaki.

But looking at the 2022 season, BMW goes into it with the addition of Scott Redding who was by far Ducati’s best rider in 2021.

It’s a move that should help BMW close the gap to the likes of Yamaha, Kawasaki and his now former team in Ducati.

Van Der Mark is unsure whether Redding will make a huge difference to the ultimate performance of BMW’s current package as Sykes is also ‘a fast guy’.

Van Der Mark added: "I don’t know, I do know that Scott [Redding] is a fast guy, but so is Tom [Sykes].

"Scott has the experience on the Ducati, so hopefully he can give us some inside information about what we can try on the BMW.

"But I think this year we have shown that Tom and I were getting similar results so we are taking the maximum from the bike and we just need to develop the package."