No longer second-rate: Supersport World Championship as competitive as Moto2

Whilst the middle category of the production-based World Championship was long regarded as second-rate, this has changed dramatically in recent years. The move of Moto2 riders and the introduction of next-generation motorbikes have accelerated this process.

This development was also observed by the established team principal Andrea Quadranti. Between 2014 and 2018, the Ticino native organised MV Agusta’s factory entry in the World Superbike Championship and in the Supersport category until 2025. Since this year, Quadranti has been associated with Yamaha and, with his star rider Albert Arenas, leads the overall standings in the Supersport World Championship.

“The standard in the Supersport class has been rising for a few years now, and 2026 is incredible. A few years ago, only the top five were within a second of each other; now it’s as close as in Moto2,” the Swiss noted in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com editor-in-chief Ivo Schützbach. “Arenas has also learnt the hard way that, even as an experienced Moto2 rider, you can’t win every race in the Supersport World Championship by several seconds.”

The bikes in the Supersport category range from a classic 600cc four-cylinder to two three-cylinder and two-cylinder engines with over 900cc. The Yamaha R9 is the current world championship bike. A complex balancing system ensures a level playing field.

“The standard of riding is high, but so are the bikes,” says Quadranti. “Although I do have a problem with the balancing system. When I take off my Yamaha hat and look at it objectively from the outside, I see things that shouldn’t be the case.”