Portimao Test Next Up For BbKRT

The unique Autodromo Internacional do Algarve is the venue for the next bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) pre-season test session, which will take place between 28-29 January 2026.

After a weather-affected test session at the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto last week, BbKRT riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani, plus regular test rider Xavi Fores, are hoping for longer periods of dry track time to work through their test plans when they get to Portugal.

As it stands, the weather forecast for 28 and 29 January is not promising, but the BbKRT team will be ready to face whatever conditions they find at the heavily undulating 4.592km circuit, located in the hills behind some of the Algarve’s major holiday resorts.

Work at the Portimao test will concentrate on several aspects of the KB998 Rimini’s development in WorldSBK spec, as the whole team aims to push itself to even greater heights in 2026, after a podium-capable debut season in bimota colours last year.

Because of the unknowns regarding the weather conditions which will be encountered at Portimao, a final plan of when each regular rider will take to the track is yet to be decided. With strict limits on how many test days and/or half days each contracted 2026 WorldSBK rider is allowed to have through the season, this factor has to be taken into account when determining exactly when they take to the track on their full WorldSBK spec machines.

The Portimao test will be the final pre-season outing in Europe before the WorldSBK paddock moves to Australia to take on the official pre-season test sessions, and then round one at the famous Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.

The official organisers’ tests will take place at ‘PI’ between 16-17 February, and the opening round of the 12-event season will be held between 20-22 February.

Alex Lowes stated: “The weather forecast looks even worse than last week in Jerez, so I have not put too much expectation on the Portimao test. I don’t want to get it in my head that we are going to be trying ‘this, this and this…’ and then we don’t get any dry laps in. In terms of wet testing, I am not sure if we will run or not. It could rain in Australia, but it is a very peculiar track anyway. We will see what my crew chief Pere says, and if they have some things to try and they want us to do some wet testing, then obviously we will. I think the target is to check the weather and see if we can get any work done on any dry laps. I would love to try to confirm the set-up changes we made from the end of the previous season to the testing we did in November in Jerez. The bike was quite different, so I would like to confirm if those changes work at another track layout, especially Portimao. That will be a bonus if we can do that, and if not, we just need to adapt to the weather and see what happens.”

Axel Bassani stated: “We will have two more days of testing soon, but I think - especially on Wednesday - there might be really bad weather. I do not know how much we can work, but I hope we can do something, especially in dry conditions. In the wet, we worked a little bit at the Jerez tests, and we can do that again at Portimao, but we need a little bit of dry track time. I hope over the two days we can have even a few hours in the dry. We want to work on the set-up of the bike, on some set-up options, and some different items. In the end, we have a lot of work we have to do. There will be two more days of testing in Australia after Portimao, which we hope will be nice. My crew chief Uri and I need some time to work together to try to understand what I need - the where, the when, and everything.”

Guim Roda, BbKRT Team Manager, stated: “We will be at the Portimao test, even if it rains, and we will work with our test rider, Xavi Fores, to not make our riders use up track days for the future. We can work very well with Xavi. He has a very good level of bike understanding and speed. The conclusions we can take from him are very useful to continue developing the bike and to prepare the things on the bike to be used by Alex and Axel. We will continue working on this, and we will also polish many other team dynamics to organise workflow, information, and communication around the team in many aspects. Any opportunity we have for the team’s 45 people to stay together, talking and checking things, is very good. Our team has a lot of different nationalities, with some staff living in different places other than near our headquarters. That means that the tests we do, normally, provide a very good opportunity for us to discuss many topics together, and that is very important for our overall performance.”