After a successful first WorldSBK season, the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team has already taken part in its first pre-2026 test session, which took place directly after the final round of the season at Jerez in October.

The famous 4.423km long circuit in the south of Spain also provides the challenge for the imminent late November test. Other teams and riders are scheduled to share the track with BbKRT, which will make this particularly useful test for the riders and team staff as they drive the project forward into its second season.

Technical development and preparations this year will have a vast amount of data from the 2025 WorldSBK season, which was the first one for the bimota KB998 Rimini. After a lot of post-season work in the team’s HQ in Barcelona, BbKRT is focusing on the latest preparations for the 12-round 2026 WorldSBK championship, which will start in Australia in February.

Due to the continuing test restrictions for full-time WorldSBK riders, both Alex and Axel will ride for just one day at Jerez, with test rider Xavi Fores evaluating parts and settings on Wednesday 26 November, before the official riders take to the track on Thursday.

This Jerez test will be the final one before the traditional mid-winter break begins. The next development test for BbKRT will take place between 21-22 January 2026, once again at Jerez.

Alex Lowes stated: “It’s been nice to have a little break after the season, but now I’m ready to get back to some track action with the guys in the team. We have no new bike to develop this year, so it’s more of a constant evolution. I know we have some parts from Showa and also new ideas from my crew chief Pere so that we can work in the areas we struggled with in 2025. Our target before the winter break begins is to learn as much as possible about the areas we must keep looking into to improve the KB998 Rimini, so that we are ready for the start of 2026. Jerez is a circuit we know well, so it’s a good place to test new parts and confirm if they are better. Hopefully, the weather is acceptable and we can enjoy plenty of laps. Our plan is to ride for one day of the test.”

Axel Bassani stated: “We are still making plans of exactly what we will do in Jerez, but in some ways it should be similar to the last test we did there, immediately after the final race of the season. I think this will be the last 2025 test before the winter break, so we will try to finish with a good feeling and try to understand where we need to focus our development programme on during the winter break. We will try to work with as little stress as possible. We will be calm and try to focus on the difficult areas we found in the 2025 season.”

Guim Roda, BbKRT Team Manager, stated: “After a busy September/October, we could work again calmly in the workshop, and with all our suppliers, to get ready for this final test of 2025 in Jerez. This is our first outing with some basic points we have developed to try to make steps ahead in 2026 with the KB998 Rimini. We plan to start with Xavi Fores on the first day and then with both Alex and Axel on the second day. Basically, we will check and evaluate some points on the bike with Fores, before confirming some things with our riders, due to the 10-day test limitation rule. The weather forecast seems not so bad, and I’m sure with many riders on track, we will see promising lap times - which should make for a nice show during this test.”