{"id":52477,"date":"2026-07-10T21:20:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/52477\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T21:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:20:30","slug":"muir-on-bmws-2027-line-up-we-opted-to-give-each-rider-a-bit-more-time-its-the-riders-prerogative-hes-got-to-explore-his-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/52477\/","title":{"rendered":"Muir on BMW\u2019s 2027 line-up: \u201cWe opted to give each rider a bit more time\u2026 It\u2019s the rider’s prerogative; he\u2019s got to explore his options\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship\u2019s 2026 silly season rumour mill has been churning away as the field arrived at Donington Park for the Prosecco DOC UK Round. ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team Principal Shaun Muir took a few moments to clarify his team\u2019s position with regards to the rumours that have begun to swirl about their 2027 seats after it came to light that the team elected not to exercise their renewal clause for their rider pair of Danilo Petrucci and Miguel Oliveira\u2019s contracts. Exacerbating the drama, the #88 confirmed that he has been \u201clooking around\u201d<\/a> at other WorldSBK teams who may hope to snatch up the former MotoGP race winner for 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWITH BOTH RIDERS HAVING BEEN OUT FOR SO MUCH TIME, WE KNEW THAT OPTION WOULD BE ESSENTIALLY BYPASSED\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that BMW\u2019s season has been far from what both the riders and the team had hoped for. Despite a podium hat trick at home in the second round of the season and another P3 at Balaton, Oliveira suffered a big opening-lap crash at Balaton in the Tissot Superpole Race<\/a>, ending his weekend, and he went on to miss the next two rounds with a concussion and a fractured scapula. Across the garage, Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) hasn\u2019t made his way onto the podium yet, an uncharacteristic slow start for the Italian, further hampered after suffering a broken coccyx at Most in Race 1, which has seen him miss the last two rounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both riders are back in their leathers now and closer to 100% with every passing day, but questions began to be asked around the paddock after BMW elected not to exercise the renewal clause in their riders\u2019 1+1-year contracts. Muir, however, downplayed the situation, clarifying that no decisions have been made, and that the clause was not activated as both he and the riders feel more time competing on the bike is needed in order to make any decisions.<\/p>\n

On BMW\u2019s decision not to exercise the automatic contract extension clause, Muir said: \u201cWe were hindered by injuries to the two riders; we would normally include a clause in the contract around June to review the season and see if it suits both sides. Because of the injuries, we opted to give each rider a bit more time, and as a result, we were able to test here at Donington. We will then test at Estoril and Magny-Cours. Hopefully, after that, both parties will be much more comfortable sitting down and making that decision. With both riders having been out for so much time, we knew that option would be essentially bypassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTHAT\u2019S THE RIDER’S PREROGATIVE; HE\u2019S GOT TO EXPLORE HIS OPTIONS\u201d<\/p>\n

BMW made a splash both figuratively and financially when they announced the signing of the five-time MotoGP race winning Oliveira. Their rider, however, has been weighing out his options; he has confirmed he\u2019s been looking around, seemingly testing his options as a free agent after the 2026 season. He was very tight-lipped when speaking to the media on Thursday, not exactly pouring cold water on the gossip surrounding his 2027 plans.<\/p>\n

On Oliveira being linked with other seats, Muir said: \u201cThat\u2019s the rider’s prerogative; he\u2019s got to explore his options. We think we have a great package here; it\u2019s one year into a multi-year deal for these riders that could stay and be part of this journey. We know what\u2019s happened when we did that with the #54. We\u2019re confident in what we\u2019ve got; we\u2019ve been hindered by losing 2-3 rounds between them, but I\u2019m hopeful that the matter will be concluded in the coming weeks and certainly before we go to Magny Cours. I think by that point it\u2019ll be common knowledge the outcome of the rider and selection process for the next two-three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

With both riders even more motivated than usual to land strong results, tune in for the action to come at Donington with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 50% off!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship\u2019s 2026 silly season rumour mill has been churning away as the field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[6213,4325],"class_list":["post-52477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-bmw","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}