Ryan Vickers (WorldSBK) opens up to Palmen in Motorradsport

The Superbike World Championship has welcome for the 2025 season a new, fresh, young face coming straight from the British championship, known as BSB: Ryan Vickers, making his debut campaign in the series with the Ducati lined up by Motocorsa Racing Team.

Born in 1999, Vickers finished the 2024 BSB season in fifth place, scoring seven wins and five additional podium finishes and showed incredible talent in the years he spent in the British championship. After that, he stepped up to the WorldSBK and even if the transition to the world stage has been difficult, mainly due to the technical differences compared to the British series, the Brit has scored multiple point finishes and is progressing step by step, until finishing Race 2 in Misano in 11th place and right outside the top 10 (less than one second behind Michael van der Mark, who finished 10th). Vickers is adapting to the new reality and working better and better with the team, and this boosts his confidence ahead of the second part of the season.

Palmen in Motorradsport had the chance to sit with Ryan Vickers and alk about the 2025 season, his career, the years he spent in BSB and more on himself.

Ryan, how is the 2025 season going for you?

Not so bad. You know, it's a very big change for me in many different ways: first time on the Ducati, first time in the World Championship, learning new circuits every time I go out, electronics...Another world compared to BSB! Another difference is that sometimes we ride in very hot conditions, like in Misano or Phillip Island, and this happens in the BSB only once per year maybe, so I had to adapt to it. Moreover, working with an Italian team as well, it's definitely a lot different. Anyway, we are progressing.

Unfortunately and also fortunately, the level is extremely high this year and I agree with the people who say that it's the highest level it's ever been. For example, in Most I finished one race out of the points, but with a race time that, in 2024, would have been enough to win. Everybody's moved on a lot, which makes it a tough learning year for me, but we're learning and getting closer as I understand the bike, the team and the championship.

What's been the biggest shock for you coming here from BSB?

It's a combination, to be honest. It's actually surprising how differently you have to ride the bike, especially with the electronics. Plus, the overall level in the World Championship is undeniably higher. That’s not to say a BSB rider couldn’t make the step, but the depth of field is far greater here: everyone on the grid is fast. Back in BSB, I could have a bad session and still end up in sixth or seventh place, even with issues. Here in the WorldSBK, I’m riding well, the bike is working well, yet I’m in 16th, 15th or even 18th position. Everything feels good, but the results show how competitive it is. You can make the bike work exceptionally well, but it takes experience from the rider and the team.

And actually, this has been the biggest shock: how much more you can keep progressing. When you think you're on the limit, there’s always a bit more to extract. That never seems to stop here. At the end of a day, everyone might say they’re at the limit, but the day after, with the engineers and everyone involved, they somehow find another three or four tenths. Today, that would seem impossible—but the next day, it happens. You can keep progressing a little bit further, and I think that’s definitely helped by the electronics and the experience of riders and teams who’ve been on these bikes and circuits for years.

Yeah, of course, it's a big change for you coming from BSB. But what's your goal for the remaining races of the season?

For sure, the goal is to reach the top 10. My personal target was maybe a little higher, but we have to be realistic: the level here is incredibly high. We're closing the gap, though. We're right on the borderline of the points every race, which might not look great on paper, but we're only two or three tenths a lap away from being in the mix. Just that small improvement could put me in the battle from 5th to 12th place. And once you're in that group, you start learning more and before you know it, you’re climbing through the pack. I know the bike is capable, and I know I’m capable. It’s just about putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. It’s crazy how small changes really make a big difference.

Now, looking back at your past, could you share more on how your racing career started?

It really all comes from my dad. I don’t know exactly where I got it from, but from the age of three, I was already riding a motorbike. I was always in the garage with him—he had bikes, was really good on them, and although he never raced, he did some competitions and was incredibly skilled. I guess that’s where the passion came from—that bug inside me. I started racing when I was seven and continued until I was 16. I won eight British Youth Championships and finished second overall in the Red Bull Pro Nationals. I also did a year in indoor arena cross, rode for several teams, and had strong results. But then I suffered a knee injury—tore my ACL while transitioning from 65cc to 85cc—and that really brought my motocross career to a halt. I struggled with the injury, then I injured it again, and that’s when the opportunity came to try road racing.

That switch became permanent in 2016. In 2017, I won the final race of the season, and we caught the attention of Yamaha, who saw the progress and came on board with a bit of support. So, in 2018 we ran as an officially supported Yamaha rider, though it was still very much Team Vickers: my mum, dad, and who was behind it. We entered the Stock 600 Championship again, aiming to win...And I did win it, taking victory in every race except one, where I crashed out of the lead. I secured the championship three or four rounds early, and yeah...It was an incredible year!

Did you expect such a season? You were winning many races, also with a huge gap.

The bike was exactly the same from 2017 to 2018—the difference was purely experience. It's actually quite similar to the process I'm going through now in the World Championship. Back in 2017, everything in BSB was new to me: the circuits, the bike, the level of competition. Everything felt fast and challenging, and the riders were incredibly quick. But by the end of that season, I started to understand it all: the tracks, the bike, the pace. When I returned to some of those circuits later in the year, things began to click. Then in 2018, I arrived at every round with the right gearing, the right suspension setup, and a better understanding of what was needed. That allowed me to focus on improving myself, and as a result, we won a lot of races. That success caught the attention of some Superbike teams and people around the paddock, which ultimately led to my move to Superbike in 2019.

For Stock 600 straight to the Superbike. That was a crazy step!

I was the first person to ever do it. It was a huge jump, going from a bike with around 118–120 horsepower to one with 240. I made that move with the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team and spent three years with them. We had a decent bike and a decent team, but maybe not quite at the same level as some of the top outfits, so the learning curve was steep. Naturally, we had some crashes, some injuries, and a few setbacks along the way, but right from the start—during testing and those first races—I was fast. I remember my second-ever Superbike race: I qualified P9 on the third row and battled inside the top 10, straight from Stock 600, which was pretty amazing. 2021, our final year together, actually started really well. We were close to podiums, had front-row starts, and were battling at the front.

But things changed mid-season when we lost our crew chief, and from there, things started to unravel. I was basically crew-chiefing myself, which is far from ideal as a rider, and that made the rest of the season difficult. At the end of the year, we parted ways, and I got an opportunity with the FHO Racing BMW team. A well-established team, and it was my first time on a BMW, so I went into the season feeling positive and excited. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out. I didn't have a good feeling with the bike, and the relationship with the team didn’t develop the way I needed it to. Their working style didn’t suit me, and ultimately, we only did one season together.

And then you got the opportunity to move to the OMG Racing Yamaha Team in 2023.

They had just come off winning the championship with Brad Ray, and I’d always had a relationship with Yamaha since my 600cc days, so I was super excited to get the opportunity. I have to thank Alan Gardner for giving me the chance. We did a test in December, and as soon as I rode the bike, I knew we were going to be fast: I absolutely loved it. The bike did exactly what I wanted; I really gelled with it straight away. Coming off a difficult year with the BMW, where I lost plenty of confidence, it felt great to bounce back with our first podiums, our first win, and some strong results overall.

That first year with OMG Yamaha was a solid one, and in the second year, we built on that to push for the championship. In 2024, we had a fantastic season: seven wins, twelve podiums, and even a triple win at Brands Hatch, where we dominated every race by eight seconds. The feeling was incredible. The team improved the bike a lot, and it was the first time in my career I had the same crew chief and electronics guy for a second consecutive year. Itàs true that I had been with RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team for three years, but back then I had a different crew chief and electronics guy every year, which made it feel like starting from scratch each time and making no real progress. So having continuity with the OMG team made a massive difference.

That second year gave me real momentum and was a major turning point in my career. It brought back confidence and self-belief that I’d maybe lost. We did have some setbacks that year, including a broken collarbone at Donington from a minor crash and a brutal illness at Knockhill that forced me to miss all three races. Despite that, we finished the season well. We weren’t quite in the title fight at the end, but without those bits of bad luck, we would’ve definitely been strong contenders. Still, we took a lot of positives, and it also opened the door to a move into the World Championship. We proved we could be fast, and that helped create the opportunity with Motocorsa, especially after they’d had a tough season.

How did you get the opportunity to join Motocorsa Racing Team and the WorldSBK paddock?

Having the right people in the right places and knowing people at Ducati from a long time ago made all the difference. It’s all about relationships. As soon as we realized there might be an opportunity, we pushed hard to pursue it and quickly arranged a meeting with Motocorsa. In racing, you can’t wait for opportunitie: you have to earn them and actively look for them. So, Roger (Burnett, Ryan's manager and former racer, ed) and I flew over to Italy, went straight to the workshop, and met with the Motocorsa team.

It was a funny situation—two British guys with an Italian-speaking team—but luckily Gaya (Rubini, the Motocorsa Team Coordinator, ed) speaks English and helped with translations, which made a big difference. That was our first introduction. We shared our ambitions, they shared theirs, and it all fit perfectly. On my side, I wanted to come to World Superbikes to progress and become a front-runner. On their side, they wanted to improve and needed a young rider ready for the challenge. We all understood this would take more than one year, and we committed to that.

Talking about you as a motorcycle racer, who do you mainly inspire to?

It's difficult because I've looked up to many riders throughout their careers—Valentino Rossi, Marc Márquez—but I also recognize how quickly things change. Every year, someone new impresses me in a different way. Even this year, for example, Maverick Viñales: it's been great to see his progress. In World Superbikes, there are so many things certain riders do that I really admire and know I need to improve on myself. However, I don’t think anyone is an “alien” that I can’t catch. It just takes time and work.

In any case, the strongest rider for me is Marc Márquez. What he's able to do on a bike is unbelievable, especially compared to what others have done on the same machinery. As I said, there are a lot of riders I look up to in different ways, but if I had to describe the “perfect rider,” it’s probably someone not far off from him.  He might not be my favorite personality-wise, but as a rider, you simply can’t question his talent. He's very special. I’d say he’s the most complete rider we’ve seen, and until someone comes along who surpasses him, we don’t really know if it’s even possible to be better.

And who is the rider you like the most in terms of personality?

Someone like Jack Miller, for example. He’s fun, he’s out there, and he just says things how they are, which I respect. But then, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s Toprak Razgatlıoğlu. Honestly, I think he’s the nicest rider I’ve ever met at that level. He’s a two-time world champion, and I truly believe that in a few years’ time, he’ll not only be one of the best MotoGP riders but very likely a MotoGP World Champion. Yet despite all that success, he’s still incredibly humble and down-to-earth.

I’m 100% certain that even five years from now, if I saw him on a scooter, he’d still stop and talk to me just like he always has. I remember at Donington last year, before I was even a World Superbike rider, I was walking along when he saw me. He stopped, we had a chat, and he gave me a hug. I told him, “Go, go, there are loads of people coming over to you, and you’ll be stuck here for ages,” but he just smiled and said, “No, no, no" and then sure enough, he got held up for half an hour with fans. But that’s just who he is: calm, kind and genuine. I think he’s one of the nicest characters in the sport.

What is your biggest strength? And where do you think you have the biggest room for improvement?

I think my biggest strength is how I can sense what the bike is doing and ride around problems. That definitely comes from my time in BSB, where you don’t have any electronic aids or rider assists, so you really have to ride with instinct and pure bike control. But interestingly, that strength has now also become one of my biggest weaknesses. In World Superbikes, you need to trust the electronics to do the job for you with things like anti-wheelie. For example, on corner exit, I naturally hold myself forward on the bike, which is something I do without even realizing, just out of habit from BSB.

But now, you see the experienced guys on these bikes with electronics, and they’re able to let the bike work for them. They exit the corner with their weight all the way back, almost like they could take their hands off the bars. If I don’t consciously trust the electronics, I end up slowing myself down. So yeah, the feeling I developed in BSB is a big strength, but learning to let go and let the electronics do their job is a key area I’m working on. It’s a double-edged sword.

And in conclusion, Ryan, who do you want to thank for what you've gone through so far and the opportunities that you're having?

Everybody along the way has played a role: my manager Roger Burnett, people like those from OMG Racing, the teams I have raced with, sponsors, friends, and family. Every opportunity, even the ones that didn’t go as planned, still led somewhere. Even when a move doesn’t work out the way you hoped, it’s never intentional; everyone always tries their hardest, and I’m grateful for those who’ve given me chances and stuck by me through it all.

The people who stick by you through the tough times are the ones who build something truly strong. I’ve seen it: when a bad team hits trouble, everything falls apart. But with a good team and good people, even when it gets tough, they say: "Okay, let’s rebuild." And over time, you do. So I’m thankful to every sponsor, every team, every individual. It’s never just one thing or one person: it’s all of them, together.

Palmen in Motorradsport is grateful to Ryan Vickers for his time and kindness, and to Motocorsa Racing Team for making the interview possible. Sending the best wishes to both the team and the rider for the remainder of the season.