After the first 22 races of the Superbike World Championship, and with only two weekends of two rounds each remaining, Bradl is only in fourteenth position in the provisional standings, behind privateers like Leandro Mercado and Roman Ramos. . The German's worst result this year was his sixth place at Assen, and he would happily leave WSBK with no regrets.
Stefan, who is only 27 years old, does not have a competitive machine, nor adequate support from the manufacturer. The technical director left the team in the middle of the season, and no dramatic improvement appears to be in sight for 2018. So perhaps it is time to change perspective.
After five seasons in GP 125 (including the best in 2008 with Kiefer on Aprilia with a fourth place in the final), Bradl became Moto2 World Champion in 2011 by beating Marc Marquez, which few pilots can boast of. Honda therefore did not hesitate to entrust him with an official motorcycle at LCR in MotoGP where he remained for three years, from 2012 to 2014.
Unfortunately he only got one podium in three years (second at Laguna Seca in 2013), and he went down one step in 2015 with a Yamaha from NGM Forward Racing. When team boss Giovanni Cuzari had problems with the law, Bradl left the team to join Aprilia. He also rode for the Italians in 2016, but without obtaining any grandiose results and had to move to Superbike for 2017.
In WSBK, apart from Kawasaki and Ducati there is no salvation, and the four official motorcycles are already allocated for 2018. The German could therefore return to MotoGP, but this time as a test rider because a need arises.
If Ducati's test riders (Casey Stoner and Michele Pirro) and KTM (Mika Kallio) are particularly fast, on the other hand the Japanese are rather disappointing, as we saw at Motegi with for example Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Kotha Nozane at Yamaha, as well as Hiroshi Aoyama at Honda, while previously in the season at Suzuki Takuya Tsuda did not exactly dazzle the crowds.
Japanese manufacturers are discussing the possibility of having a real test team based in Europe, in which case a driver like Bradl would be useful to them.
Photo © Honda Racing
Source: Günther Wiesinger for speedweek. com
