Paddock Pass Podcast

Four days of testing on the Iberian Peninsula gets underway this week at Jerez. Two days of action will get underway at the Southern Spanish circuit on Wednesday before the paddock moves to Portimao.

Iker Lecuona's move to the Aruba.it Ducati squad will see the Spaniard armed with the best bike on the grid and a team looking for their star man of the future. Could it be Lecuona? If he can perform well this year he'll be in the pound seats to be the man at Ducati if Nicolo Bulega moves to MotoGP. If Iker underperforms the Italian squad will look elsewhere to a host of out of contract MotoGP riders. The pressure won't ramp up for a few rounds but Lecuona needs to hit the ground running in 2026.

Miguel Oliviera has already made the move from MotoGP to WorldSBK but what can we expect from him this year? Steve and Gordo breakdown his prospects and why this test is important for him and his new crew chief, Andrew Pitt. Bringing with him a wealth of experience as a rider and enginner Pitty is a wildcard in the mix at BMW. He's the man that could unlock potential from the package and give Miguel an extra gear compared to his teammate, Danilo Petrucci. The intra-team battle at BMW is set to be intriguing with the experienced Michael van der Mark in the shadows as test rider and a good yardstick to judge their performances on this week.

At Honda Jake Dixon will be back in action and out to prove that lessons have been learned since his last days on the Fireblade. Three crashes were a blot on the November copy book for the British rider and it'll be interesting to see how his pace fares this week. After a raft of injuries in recent years for Lecuona Honda are already down a man with his replacement, Somkiat Chantra, ruled out of action after fracturing his forearm. Jonathan Rea was always scheduled to test this week for the Developement Team but will he now be seen as a potential replacement for Chantra at Round 1? Ryan Vickers and Tetsuta Nagashima are the other options.

At bimota the biggest change is personnel. Axel Bassani has a new crew chief for 2026 with Uri Pallares rejoining the Provec run operation. The Italian rider has shown flashes of potential on the bimota but needs to make a step forward this year. Will changing crew chiefs bring with it a change of fortunes? It looks like bimota will only run Alex Lowes for a single day of this test. They also saved a day in November for the British rider. Is that a way to allocate the test dates more evenly throughout the campaign?

Testing is always a chance to run the rule over rider changes. No change will be more significant than Alvaro Bautista joning Barni Racing. The double champion has a brand new bike for 2026 and the improved Ducati V4R might be exactly what he needs to be back on top. The fight for top Independent Rider honours this year should be led by Bautista but Jerez will give us a chance to see him in his new colours and on his new mount.

There's lots to talk about as every in WorldSBK and we'll keep you up to date throughout the campaign!

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A rapid-fire reaction from Italy and the launch of the Ducati Lenovo team for what is the company’s centennial. Adam is joined by the host of the event, TNT Sports commentator and friend of the podcast Gavin Emmett, to provide some news and views on Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and the GP26 livery.

You can watch the recording of the launch livestream here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvIhLlp6WVc

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Adam, David and Neil travelled to the Sky studios in Milan as guest of Aprilia Racing to see the 2026 RS-GPs and hear what CEO Massimo Rivola, Technical Director Fabiano Sterlacchini and, of course, Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin had to say about the upcoming MotoGP season. Here are our three ‘takeways’ from another slick Italian presentation.

You can watch the recorded livestream of the Aprilia launch here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/tql7ZOS66XM?si=lrbv9Pe5Z1YLpITe

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The wheels are just starting to roll on 2026 so how about a few fun, uninformed and highly speculative predictions and ‘things we’d like to see’ for MotoGP this year?! Pedro Acosta to Yamaha? Dani Holgado to KTM? Is this the year Liberty makes it's presence felt?

Join Adam, David and Neil for some wacky (as well as shrewd?) takes and more.

FIM bans restarts at trackside
https://motomatters.com/news/2026/01/11/fim_bans_track_side_restarts_in_worldsbk.html#comment-127314

Fermin Aldeguer breaks femur
https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/fermin-aldeguer-remains-hospitalised-after-surgery-and-awaits-medical-discharge/10789456/

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We have merch! Get your t-shirts, caps, hoodies and more here:
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The year is in the books for the Paddock Pass Podcast and we'll close it out with our final show. Steve and Gordo review the year that was with topics such as our rider of the year, round of the year, surprise of the season and others covered!