Honda WorldSBK Signs Stefan Bradl for 2017 Season

The rumors were true, and that means that Stefan Bradl will be moving to the World Superbike Championship for the 2017 season, as Nicky Hayden’s teammate in the Honda factory-backed WSBK team.

The news has been floating for some time now, with Bradl’s options in MotoGP seemingly getting worse each season. Couple that to what is being rumored as a very low offer by Honda to retain the services of Michael van der Mark for next year (an offer that expired at Laguna Seca), and the opportunity for Bradl to jump championships was set.

An added boon to the series, Bradl will bring some German star-power to the World Superbike Championship, something Dorna is said to be very keen about – German WSBK fans will certainly rejoice at today’s news, that is for sure.

“I’m really happy to join the Honda WorldSBK Team for the 2017 season,” said Stefan Bradl. “It’s a great opportunity for me and I’m really looking forward to this new challenge with a really competitive team and I’m sure we’ll do great things together.”

“Of course, this is going to be a whole new experience for me but I will try to adapt as quickly as possible, in order to get some really good results. I can’t wait to try the Fireblade and, obviously, it’ll be fantastic to work together with Nicky: I think it’s a fantastic combination because we understand each other really well. We can all look forward to the future and I am super motivated for this new journey.”

For World Superbike fans as a whole though, the addition of Stefan Bradl to the championship helps bring some diversity in nations represented, but it also means another top talent will be racing in the production-based superbike class.

Bradl has had strong links with Honda in the past, riding for the LCR Honda MotoGP team with a factory contract. Now with the Honda WorldSBK team, Bradl is sure to be a fast contender and continue the relationship that has already been started.

The German’s timing is strong too, with Honda finally set to update the Fireblade for the 2017 model year. We all wait to see how strong of a package the new machine will be, as there is a great deal of speculation between it being an all new machine (potentially a V4) or just another modest evolution of the current package. Time will tell on that.