The 2024 season has finally got underway for the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team who have been in action testing across the weekend at Donington Park, in preparation for the first round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place in just over a weeks’ time at Navarra in Spain.

Reunited as a team for the first time since the Macau Grand Prix last November, Josh Brookes and Peter Hickman were back onboard and getting reacquainted with their BSB-spec BMW M 1000 RR machines, which they haven’t ridden in BSB trim since the final round last year at Brands Hatch.

Over the official two-day test, Faye Ho’s squad worked through a host of updates to the BMW machines including changes to the chassis and engine braking strategies. With high winds and cold temperatures across the days it was difficult to get a true test of the changes made, but initial signs are looking positive for the upcoming season.

‘Hicky’ enjoyed his time back on his BMW Superbike and knocked 0.7 seconds off last year’s race time, ending the weekend seventh overall on combined times (1:28.664). For teammate Josh the weekend proved frustrating after not being able to move forward with the set-up and he wrapped up the weekend 13th overall (1:29.065).

The FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team will now head back to the workshop and prepare for the final pre-season test and the opening round of the season, which both take place at Navarra, with Round 1 on 20-21 April.

JOSH BROOKES #25
“The weekend started out well considering how much time we’ve had off the bikes and it was as good as we could expect. The first thing was the changes to the engine and that didn’t show up any real problems or issues; the BMW is still strong and the times were competitive. The rest of the two days we spent making changes and trying to improve the package we had, but we didn’t really find anything and have ended up going back to how it was last year, and by that I mean the suspension and the chassis position is more or less how I would have rode last season. The good news is that what we had last year is the best of what we’ve had, but the idea of testing is to improve the set-up and find something new, and as I stand here now, we haven’t been able to find anything new or better. But the BMW is as good as it was last year and we haven’t lost anything with the engine changes, so there are some positives to take away.”

PETER HICKMAN #60
“Obviously it’s great to be back on the FHO Racing BMW, apart from the weather it’s actually been okay; the wind has been quite strong, but temperature wise it’s not been too bad and the rain managed to stay away until the last session, and for myself we’ve had a positive test. We’re using the harder tyre, which is not my preferred choice or what I’d chose to use, but so far we’ve been pretty good. We’ve made a lot of small changes to the bike over winter, which has made a difference on circuit, even with a harder tyre I have gone 0.7s faster than what I raced at last year, so I think that bodes well for the rest of the year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do.”