BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team
Images by 2Snap/GeeBee/BMW
Overnight Tom Sykes and Markus Reiterberger lifted the covers on the brand new BMW S 1000 RR machines that they will campaign in the 2019 WorldSBK Championship.
With swathes of red and blue running through the matte white finish machine it has been designed along the lines of traditional BMW M Motorsports liveries.
Sykes and Reiterberger also tested alongside their WorldSBK combatants at Portimao yesterday with Sykes finishing sixth fastest, 1.391-seconds behind the WSBK benchmark set at the test by Jonathan Rea on qualifying tyres.
Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director
“In general, we draw a positive conclusion from the tests. The weather was good, and that helped us to work off many of the previously defined test points. Unfortunately, Tom’s unlucky crash at Jerez set us back a bit, but it did not restrict our programme significantly. The tests have also shown that we are already reliable at this early stage of the project, when many new parts are installed on the bike – even though we only have six days of testing behind us. As for the lap times, we can also be quite satisfied. We were able to constantly increase and draw positive conclusions. But of course we take back a lot of data, ideas and thus work home. Now it is time to clearly define the final specification for the first races and to be ready by 8th February. Today the motorcycles will make their way to Australia.”
Sykes was surprised by how close they were with the new bike, considering they are still in their development phase.
Markus Reiterberger, who worked on the geometry of the bike and on testing different tyres, and finished tenth overall.
After their sixth day on track with the new BMW S1000RR, the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team next head to Australia for further tests ahead of the WorldSBK Championship season opener at Phillip Island on the weekend of February 24.
