Miguel Oliveira highlights the BMW’s weaknesses – and how he’s dealing with them

Six Ducatis finished in the top seven of the combined timesheets from FP1 and FP2 on Friday at the Superbike World Championship round at Magny-Cours, with only Yamaha works rider Xavi Vierge managing to squeeze in between them in fourth place. In eighth place is BMW ace Miguel Oliveira, who has agreed a multi-year contract extension with the German manufacturer.

“We need to step it up a gear and get faster,” emphasised Oliveira in France. “It’s not about a few tenths of a second, but many tenths per lap. Nor is it just about one area, but about all the areas where our rivals are a big step ahead of us. We’ve identified what we can do. Now we hope that whatever BMW does, it will be the right approach. I’m not an engineer, just the rider. But I can definitely see progress. I can do nothing but trust in their knowledge and experience to provide us with a better motorbike. A key area for us is improving our cornering. The larger the corner radius and the faster we go, the more we need additional cornering ability. We’re losing a lot of time in this area. The rest is a consequence of that.”

Oliveira cannot afford to make any mistakes

Oliveira has had difficult years in MotoGP with KTM and Yamaha, during which he had to endure a lot mentally. The Portuguese rider noted that these times cannot be compared with the current situation in the Superbike World Championship. His feeling is that the gap between the Superbikes is currently greater than it ever was in MotoGP. “In MotoGP, I sometimes had to struggle, but the gap wasn’t that big. So we’re talking about a challenge. My hope for next year is that our bike becomes a bit more user-friendly; it’s tough to ride and I can’t afford to make any mistakes. That’s the truth – I hope it’s good preparation for the future. We know what we have to do.”

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Magny-Cours: Der Samstag

FIM Superbike World Championship

05.09.2026 - 09:35