Home race for Yamaha ace Andrea Locatelli: Hope springs eternal

With seven riders, Italy is the strongest nation in the 2026 Superbike World Championship field. Contrary to what one might expect, however, most of them are not riding Ducatis but Yamahas: star rider Andrea Locatelli rides for the Pata Maxus factory team, Supersport World Champion Stefano Manzi for Giansanti Racing, and rookie Mattia Rato for the Motoxracing customer team.

Yamaha’s hopes rest on the shoulders of Locatelli, who already delivered solid results at the first home race in Misano with 7th, 8th and 7th places – the Yamaha camp hardly dares to dream of podium finishes any more.

Repeating last year’s results (18th, 7th and 8th) would already be a success for the 29-year-old, as his performances at every circuit so far in 2026 have been worse. That does nothing to dampen his anticipation for his home race: Locatelli grew up in the province of Bergamo, just around 100 km away.

“I’m really looking forward to being there: Cremona is a lovely circuit, and lots of Italian fans will be coming to cheer me and Yamaha on,” said the Italian. “So we need to stay positive and give it our all from Friday onwards. The season is drawing to a close, but I’m sure we can achieve good results if we keep working hard. Let’s look ahead!”

Fewer insights from the Superbike test in Cremona

Yamaha took part in the two-day Cremona test at the start of September; however, Day 1 was reserved for Michelin, meaning only the predominantly rainy second day could be used to prepare for the race weekend – though the weather is forecast to be warm, typical of late summer.

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“We felt good in both conditions during the test,” says Loka, waving it off. “We managed to do a few laps on a dry track – unfortunately not the whole day – and also a couple of stints on a wet track, and in both cases the feeling was really positive. We’ve done a good job, even if we were a bit short of time on the bike to build confidence and take a step forward.”