Danilo Petrucci in BMW, there's the hand of Jannik Sinner
Danilo Petrucci will race with BMW in the 2026 World Superbike Championship. This was announced by the Munich-based manufacturer itself in an official statement: the centaur from Terni, who will leave the Barni Racing Team Ducati, will take the place of Toprak Razgatlioglu, who will debut in MotoGP next season.
In the negotiation that brought Petrucci to BMW there’s also the hand of Jannik Sinner, as pointed out by manager Alberto Vergani to ‘GPOne’: “Petrucci in BMW was born last year in Cremona when Danilo won Race 1 on Saturday, I thought it was already time to look to 2026. In fact, Bautista would not retire and there was no interest from Ducati in Danilo. That weekend I was in Cremona together with Riccardo Ceccarelli, mental training for Sinner as well as other drivers and teams in F1. Riccardo knew Blusch, since he works with BMW, and consequently acted as a go-between in introducing us”.
Ceccarelli was decisive in closing the deal: “I am very grateful to Riccardo, because he is an extraordinary person, both humanly and professionally. He has been following numerous athletes for over 30 years, working on the mental aspect in order to make them consume as little brain energy as possible in their activity”.
“We will think about BMW later, now we have to think about winning the third place in the World Championship with Barni. Certainly everyone is curious to see it because it will be a good restart and something different, like when he did the Dakar” Vergani concluded.
