WSBK: Opinion: What next for Loris Baz?

From MotoGP to World Superbikes, Loris Baz’s journey around the Motorcycle Racing World Championship globe has been often unfair, some might even say turbulent and despite a far-from shabby return to World Superbikes on a far-from competitive BMW, the Frenchman – to the best of our knowledge – hasn’t secured a ride. So, the 2008 European Superstock 600 champion has to find work from some racing paddock – so which one could accommodate the popular Frenchman the best?

The obvious choice was the Hawk Racing Buildbase Suzuki team in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship but seeing as that seat has been somewhat strangely occupied by Luke Stapleford, there really is no room at the inn for Baz in BSB – even if he would be a welcome addition by fans and organisers alike. He knows the tracks, has been a top ten finisher on multiple occasions in the UK before and can ride anything that is placed under him; even if fellow French riders Sylvain Guintoli and Sylvain Barrier failed to set the BSB world alight.

World Superbikes does not seem like a viable option for Baz either, as the confirmed entry list revealed no French rider at all in 2019, the second season in three years that this has happened (2017 being the other occasion). And whilst not the most direct of correlations, statistics show that when there’s been no French rider on the grid, the French WorldSBK meeting at Magny Cours has taken a hit. In 2017, it was the lowest attended French WorldSBK round since Dorna took over in 2013 – something that isn’t great when the championship has been criticized in recent years for bad attendance figures. I should add though, weather was poor in 2017 and countries where there’s not been a home-rider racing, such as Portugal, have seen their World Superbike attendance increase rather than decrease.

There’s no room left for the former World Superbike race winner in MotoGP either, a paddock that some say he was rather cruelly dumped out of by Avintia in 2017 – all to make way for Xavier Simeon. The only options in the Grand Prix paddock would be as a test rider, but at which manufacturer. Honda, Ducati, Yamaha, Suzuki and Aprilia all have a very good set of test riders, although Loris could fit in at KTM – the team he was supposed to ride for whilst deputising for the injured Pol Espargaro at the British Grand Prix (that never was). And even then, KTM have Mika Kallio and Randy de Puniet doing their test duties, so is there even room for Baz? Even if he is probably quicker than both.

MotoAmerica needs stars but Loris Baz over there? It would certainly be a career killer and one where he’d hardly ever get back to the world stage. Toni Elias has been dominant there for two seasons and is struggling to find a way back to the world stage, although that is on the presumption that he would want to. It’d be a huge step back for the Frenchman and perhaps maybe even a step too far back – but also too far out of the core motorcycle racing paddock circles. Once in the USA, it’d be hard for him to get back to where he needs to be, and if he was ever back in World Superbikes after MotoAmerica, he isn’t going to be on competitive machinery that some would argue he deserves.

All in all, Loris Baz’s future looks bleak and that is something that isn’t fair. Certainly not for someone who firstly lost out to a MotoGP ride because someone had more money than him, and then in WSBK because other big names have shaken the championship’s rider line-up of, with the additions of Leon Haslam, Alvaro Bautista, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Sandro Cortese as well as a cut in the number of teams and bikes actually entered in for 2019. Baz has played a game of musical chairs against his will and unfortunately the music has stopped; he’s still standing and certainly not looking like a true survivor.