BMW in World Superbike 2013

[kthutchinson]

I tuned in the SBK broadcast on Speed this afternoon and was greeted with the news that BMW will withdraw their factory team next year and only support the BMW Italia team in the series. Shades of BMW in Formula 1. No world championship in the first few years, so pack up and go home.

 

[mika]

Last week BMW announced :

BMW Motorrad realigns motor sports activities: commitment to the Superbike World Championship 2013.

There has been all sorts of speculation what this means beyond what was said so far. Don't see it as the same as the exit from F1 at all.

The release talks about a division of labor and responsibility between Munich and BMW Italia and a shrink in management. The management overhead for two WSBK teams has seemed excessive even to me.

The SBK / MotoGP season is winding down. Once they have their contracts signed they will announce. Could be a two bike team. Could be a factory team run by Italia and another team run by Alpha Racing. Could end up being an expansion of motorcycle road racing when it is all done.

Time and the next press releases will tell. My guess no one has gotten it right so far, myself included.

 

[kthutchinson]

Factory press release = spin!

BMW is trying to make the best of the situation so as not to piss off too many fans. I suspect the BMW's presence in SBK will be like Carlos Checa's Ducati team; factory assistance, but not a real factory team. I'm just disappointed that a company with BMW's motorsport heritage can't seem to stick with any particular series for more than a few years.

 

[mika]

Any press release is spin.

You may be right about the similarity to how Ducati manages its SBK effort. We don't know enough at this point about how that plays out in Motorrad land.

So far all we really know is BMW will be SBK racing in 2013. The Mothership will run engine development and BMW Italia will be in charge of writing the checks for chassis development and the team (how ever big that is) on a season basis.

Other than Aprilia, who has a 'factory' team in SBK right now? Aprilia is splitting their efforts with CRT support. For that matter how much good have over feed factory programs really done for racing?

It is the silly season in SBK and MotoGP. At the same time it is when teams have to go through their bureaucratic hopes with the FIM for the coming season. The silly season is never neat and tidy but always full of some surprises.

 

[42906]

Meanwhile Marco Melandri posted a double win at Brno this weekend. BMW is ahead in manufacturers points and Mr. Melandri is only 21 points behind series leader Max Biaggi. It has been a looong time coming!

 

[chaseh]

I drove me crazy that BMW Motorrad spoiled the news of Marco's double yesterday on Facebook. I still watched when I got back from a weekend of riding, but those races would have bene pretty exciting if I didn't know the outcome.