Some experienced and familiar riders will be starting a new role, as the BMW Motorrad Test Team adds Bradley Smith and Sylvain Guintoli to their line-up.
Smith spent seven years in MotoGP, claiming two podiums from 119 starts riding Aprilia, Yamaha and KTM machinery. He also finished on the podium three times in the Moto2 class, and won three races in the 125cc championship, with a best overall finished of fourth in 2010. He’s the only rider to have taken a podium in all four classes of GP racing, including MotoE, was part of the winning Yamaha team at the 2015 Suzuka 8 Hours, and made a couple of appearances in the World Supersport championship in 2022.
Meanwhile Guintoli will be riding in the FIM EWC series with the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team this year alongside joining the new test team. He won the FIM Endurance World Championship in 2021, and the FIM Superbike World Championship in 2014. The French racer also competed in MotoGP in various years from 2002 onwards, and in the 250cc World Championship, claiming one podium.
The pair will be testing and developing the BMW M 1000 RR for the superbike series, which is being ridden by Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark for Rokit BMW Motorrad, and the duo of Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff in the Bonovo Action squad.
Which is itself a pretty experienced line-up, with three of the roster already riding for BMW across multiple seasons (van der Mark since 2021, Redding since 2022, Gerloff in 2023) after racing in WSB for Yamaha, Ducati and the GRT Yamaha team respectively. And they’re being joined by the 2021 WSB champion Razgatlioglu, who also finished runner-up in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Check out all of our motorcycle sport coverage, here.
Leave a Reply