With just a little more than two months before the start of the 2013 World Superbike championship with the season opener at Phillip Island, the series seems to heading down the same road that MotoGP had before Dorna introduced the CRT’s – a dwindling grid – with just ten teams, sixteen riders and five manufacturers present so far.
Aprilia will be playing the lion’s part with four bikes on the grid, BMW three, while Ducati has dropped from its massive seven strong in 2012 to just three riders to use the new 1199 Panigale in the upcoming season.
Kawasaki will have two or four depending on Pedercini, while Suzuki and Honda will each have two bikes.
2013 entry list so far:Aprilia Racing Team : Eugene Laverty and Sylvain GuintoliAlthea Racing Aprilia Team : Davide GiuglianoRed Devils Aprilia Team : Michel FabrizioKawasaki Racing Team : Tom Sykes and Loris BazPata Honda Racing : Jonathan Rea and Leon HaslamCrescent Fixi Suzuki : Jules Cluzel and Leon CamierAlstare Ducati : Carlos Checa and Ayrton BadoviniBMW Motorrad Motorsport Goldbet : Marco Melandri and Chaz DaviesGrillini Progea SBK Team BMW : Vittorio IannuzzoMR Ducati Team : Max Neukirchner Kawasaki Pedercini has yet to confirm their riders, which could be Alex Lundh and Simone Grotzkyj Giorgi and there could be a new entry with Team Air Asia BMW that may field CIV Superbike rider Ivan Clementi.
So far the earlier rumors that Effenbert Liberty could be making a return haven’t panned out, yet.
Aprilia has offered other RSV4’s to Red Devils Roma and Althea teams, and apparently the relative team managers are working on finding the necessary budget to see if they can field each field another rider.