Munich. The debut season for the new BMW S 1000 RR in the FIM
Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) reaches its grand finale in
Qatar. This weekend, the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team and its riders
Tom Sykes (GBR) and Markus Reiterberger (GER) will contest the final
races of the year at ‘Losail International Circuit’ near the capital Doha.
After just a few months of development, the racing version of the new
RR brings the curtain down on its first season in WorldSBK at Phillip
Island (AUS) at the end of February. The debut season was intended as
a learning year, with the goal being to gradually close the gap on the
top teams. Sykes presented the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team with its
first podium at Misano (ITA) in June. Since then, the team has
celebrated a further three podium finishes and one pole position.
One significant feature of the Qatar finale is that the races will
start at 20:00 in the evening and will be held under floodlights. The
entire schedule will also be brought forward one day. The race weekend
kicks off with the first free practice sessions on Thursday. The
Superpole qualifying and first main race are scheduled for Friday,
followed by the Superpole race and the second main race on Saturday.
Quotes ahead of the races at Doha.
Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “Time
flies. It only seems like yesterday that we lined up for the first
time with the new BMW S 1000 RR at Phillip Island. We now head to the
final races of our debut season in WorldSBK. We can be proud of what
we have achieved in our first year. The podium finishes, in
particular, were highlights. However, it is also important for us to
consistently finish in the top six in this high-class field. We
achieved that very often. There were obviously setbacks, but that is
part and parcel of motor racing and is by no means unusual,
particularly in a learning year. Despite all the success we have
enjoyed, we must not forget that we are still developing the RR and
still have things to learn in some areas. We are very much looking
forward to Doha. It will be another challenge for us, but one we are
happy to face. It’s all about gathering more information we can work
with over the winter break.”
Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team: “After a quite frustrating weekend at Argentina we now
come to our final round of the season and we want to finish on a high.
Overall, we had some good gains in straight-line speed at the last
round in Argentina. We hope to carry that into the Qatar round where
we know that we will need speed on the long straight. Equally, we feel
the BMW S 1000 RR will be very strong on other parts of the circuit,
with the fast and flowing aspects giving us some definite advantages
over the competition. I think there’s an outside chance we can
challenge for the podium. It would be a sweet finish to our first year
in this partnership. The whole team has worked extremely hard and
deserves a final bit of success before we focus on 2020.”
Tom Sykes: “I am really looking forward to the races
in Doha. For me, it’s always a great event there underneath the
floodlights. I really enjoy the circuit layout. It seems quite
unbelievable that we are already at the end of the season but
certainly the development on the BMW S 1000 RR continues. Doha is a
quite different circuit in terms of the general layout, so I’m really
looking forward to trying the bike there and hopefully we can get a
good result to finish off what I believe has been a very strong debut
season for the new RR.”
Markus Reiterberger: “I hope for an improvement in
Qatar after the difficult weekend in Argentina. I know the circuit
from 2016, when I raced there in WorldSBK. I hope the track will suit
our new BMW S 1000 RR and am looking forward to the race weekend in
Qatar. My goal is to end the season as strongly as possible. I want to
work well with the team again. Together, we will try to make some
progress. The weekend will obviously be a bit emotional for me – after
all, these are my last races in the Superbike World Championship with
the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. However, I am looking forward to Qatar
and am grateful.”