New BSB team aiming for three 2026 WorldSBK wildcards

Ahead of its first season in BSB, the Superbike Advocates team is reportedly trying to organise wildcard appearances at three WorldSBK rounds in 2026.

Earlier in the year, after Go Eleven made it clear that it would not be continuing with Andrea Iannone in 2026, the Superbike Advocates team became linked with the Italian as a way for him to continue in World Superbike beyond the end of the 2025 season, even though the Advocates squad had publicly committed to BSB for next year.

According to Speedweek, though, any commitment to WorldSBK from Superbike Advocates would be for three races at the start of the 2026 season, before BSB got underway in May, rather than as a full-time effort in the World Championship.

The Superbike Advocates team is understood to be planning to make wildcard appearances at the Australian, Portuguese, and Dutch WorldSBK rounds in 2026, meaning the first three rounds of the season.

Additional wildcards after the start of the BSB season are not impossible, but at least for now the first three WorldSBK rounds of 2026 are understood to be the target.

The rider would be Tommy Bridewell, who is expected to join the Australian outfit and return to Ducati after two years at Honda Racing UK after the announcement from the Louth-based team that Bridewell will not continue there in 2026.

Nothing has yet been made official from the Superbike Advocates team, which is still to announce its rider line-up for the 2026 BSB season, but if Bridewell were to join the Australian-owned team he would bring a limited amount of World Superbike experience, having tested for HRC’s WorldSBK programme during the past two years and completed three wildcards, plus a fill-in ride at Aragon in place of Iker Lecuona.

As for Iannone, Speedweek reports that the Italian’s only hope of remaining in World Superbike next year is to set up his team at the cost of over €1 million.