Whitham on WorldSBK 2023 and why weight limits won’t work

World Superbikes kicks off the 2023 series this weekend, the 35th anniversary of WorldSBK, posing one of the great questions at one of the greatest and fastest circuits - Philip Island.

Who is going to have the power or courage to outpace three world champions - Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea, Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu or current champion, Spain’s Alvaro Bautista, described by the promoter as the Titanic Trio in what, never short of adjectives, they promote as being the Golden Era?

Bikesportnews.com’s resident clairvoyant, one Mr James Whitham, - not a betting man - cleverly sidestepped the question with the response: “For me [who else?] one of the most interesting things this year is that the series has four really good rookies, ex Moto2 and GP rider but newcomer to the class - Remy Gardner, [Dominique] Aegerter, [Lorenzo] Baldassarri and, er what’s his name, yes [Danilo] Petrucci. He’s just finished second in America and he’s won MotoGP races. He’s a top six or eight man I think. Depending how he gels with the Ducati he’s got real potential as does Remy although it will take him a little while to get into the Superbike swing of things and I rate both of the others. They also have the potential to be Superbike riders. Not every Supersport front runner has that potential but I think all four of those are quite interesting.”

BSN: “But they’re not going to be winners are they?”

Whitham: “No, no. But if you’re asking me who’s gonna battle for the title this year you cannot look beyond the top three from last year. Yes, Bautista, Toprak and Jonathan Rea. One of the interesting things is that there are quite some changes allowed to be made to the bikes. I cannot tell you exactly but I know, for instance, that Kawasaki