The Danilo Petrucci and BMW WorldSBK team up will end after 2026, with Petrucci and the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team confirming they will not continue together beyond this season, the Italian announced September 3 at Magny-Cours. It’s a mutual split after just one year with the German manufacturer, ending a factory chapter Petrucci had spent years working toward.
Petrucci and BMW WorldSBK Split: His Own Words
“We decided, both me and BMW, to not continue in WorldSBK next year,” Petrucci said. He was clear that the decision wasn’t contentious. “It was a mutual decision. We both gave our best and this led us to say we can’t continue together.”
Rather than immediately shopping for a new seat elsewhere on the grid, Petrucci said he’s inclined to wait and see what comes next with BMW specifically, even outside of a full-time racing role. He wants to give BMW priority given how much the manufacturer supported him this year, and hasn’t ruled out a return in some capacity down the line.
Danilo Petrucci and BMW: A Difficult First Season
Petrucci arrived at BMW for 2026 after three seasons with the independent Barni Ducati squad, where he became a consistent podium threat, scoring 20 rostrums and a hat-trick at Cremona in front of a home crowd. That track record made him one of the more coveted independent riders on the grid heading into contract season.
The factory move he’d long wanted materialized this year, but results on the M1000RR never matched that Ducati form, with a best dry result of seventh at Portimão.
A fractured coccyx sustained in a highside at Most cost him two rounds, and he returned at Donington Park still working his way back, finishing 15th in both races there. Between the injury and the adaptation curve on a new bike, it was a season that never let Petrucci show what BMW originally signed him for.
Danilo Petrucci’s Exit Contrasts With Oliveira’s BMW Future
The timing sharpens the story. BMW confirmed the same day that teammate Miguel Oliveira, contesting his own first WorldSBK season, is staying with the team through 2027 and beyond, leaving him with a new teammate to be named for next season. Where Oliveira’s early struggles and Balaton Park injury still ended in a contract extension, Petrucci’s comparable season ended in a parting of ways.
Attention now turns to who fills the seat Petrucci leaves behind. MotoGP’s Brad Binder has been floated as BMW’s frontrunner target in Portuguese trade coverage, though nothing is confirmed, and the timeline suggests BMW may take its time working through the options the same way it did before locking in Oliveira.
The Petrucci and BMW WorldSBK chapter ends there, and it follows Petrucci’s original WorldSBK arrival back in 2023, a move that’s now come full circle with his BMW chapter closing after just one season.
Whether Petrucci resurfaces at another manufacturer, waits on BMW as he says he’d prefer, or steps away from full-time WorldSBK racing altogether is the real open question heading into the winter. For a rider who spent years chasing a factory seat before finally getting one, walking away from it after a single difficult season is its own kind of statement.
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