When the chequered flag falls on Sunday in the final race of the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season, an era will come to an end. It will be far more significant than the end of Nicolo Bulega's reign as Champion with Aruba.it Racing – Ducati. After 22 years and 660 races as the Championship's control-tyre supplier, Pirelli will bow out of WorldSBK.
When the Pirelli era started it came on the back of a dominant season from Ducati. In 2003 the Bologna machines won every race of the season and while they are likely to do the same again this year, it is an anomaly. Since then, WorldSBK has continued to provide opportunities for multiple manufacturers to compete at the front. Gone were the days of tyre specials for factory teams or manufacturers being saddled with uncompetitive rubber. Now, the same tyre was available for everyone on the grid, and you needed to work hard to make it work for you.
It’s been a remarkable 22 years of partnership between WorldSBK and Pirelli. It hasn’t always been perfect, there have been some mishaps along the way, but when James Toseland crossed the line on February 29th, 2004, he made history. The Englishman was the first rider to win with a control-tyre in WorldSBK.
At the time, introducing a control-tyre was seen by some as a step backwards for a major World Championship. A tyre war had traditionally driven development, with manufacturers and tyre companies pushing each other to find performance. Why remove that competition from racing? Pirelli's answer was to take the development battle in a different direction. They wanted to use WorldSBK to develop tyres that customers could buy and use on their own bikes. It proved to be the recipe for the brand for the next two decades.
Despite the scepticism at the start of the control-tyre era almost every major championship in the world has followed suit. Whether it’s MotoGP or Formula 1, cars or bikes, the decision to implement this strategy has now been followed in almost every series. Pirelli wanted to ensure that the development war hadn’t ended but rather that its purpose changed.
The goal was to allow customers to buy and use the same tyres used in the series. Pirelli ensured that these are production tyres for production bikes. The goal of Pirelli in WorldSBK was always to follow the old adage of Superbike racing; win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Customers could buy the exact same tyre in a shop and fit them to their bikes. Whether it was the treaded tyres used in WorldSSP or the slicks of WorldSBK, if you were going on a track day you could buy the same tyre used by the WorldSBK stars of the era. It was a remarkable step that surprised many within racing when Pirelli proved their credentials on track and in the showroom.
Being the control-tyre offered commercial benefits to Pirelli, but it also benefited WorldSBK. A constant stream of developments saw changes to compounds, profiles and sizes. It changed how racing developed. One lap Superpole tyres were slowly phased out. When WorldSBK introduced the Tissot Superpole Race, Pirelli brought a specific tyre for the 10-lap battle.
Lap records have continued to fall and race times have tumbled. Development never stopped. When the Pirelli era draws to a close on Sunday, the company will leave behind more than 22 years of results and records. It will leave a legacy that helped prove a control-tyre could serve the needs of both World Championship racing and the customers who take those same products onto the track.
