As thoughts are turning to the 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship battle, during the FIM and SBK Commission, held on the 30th November, in Madrid composed of Gregorio LAVILLA (WorldSBK Sporting Director, Chairman), Takanao TSUBOUCHI (MSMA) and Paul DUPARC (Deputizing for Rezsö BULCSU & secretary of the meeting), also present Charles HENNEKAM (FIM CTI Coordinator), Scott SMART (FIM WorldSBK Technical Director) and Daniel CARRERA (WorldSBK Executive Director), the CET Standard Time Schedule was confirmed, providing the final shape to the weekends format.

2019 will see World Superbike Championship change from four to three free practice sessions, meaning Friday will revert back to two WorldSBK Free Practices. WorldSSP on track action will remain the same, whilst WorldSSP300 will be split into two groups with two free practice sessions for each group. The final times from Friday’s sessions won’t affect qualifying positions.

Saturday offers a big change in the format as the Tissot Superpole will now become one single Qualifying session for all classes. The final results of the WorldSBK Tissot Superpole will decide the grid for WorldSBK Race One and Sunday´s Sprint Race, now branded as the Tissot Superpole Race. For the World Supersport 300 Championship, the riders not qualifying for their first race will also have a ‘Last Chance’ race to follow on from Qualifying. The top six finishers of this race will secure the final six places on Sunday’s grid.

Four races will be the treat on offer on Sunday, with two WorldSBK Races. The first SBK® race of the day will be an all new Sprint Race format of 10 laps (throughout duration of the season) where points will be added to the overall championship standings* and awarded in the Tissot Superpole Race as follows: 12/9/7/6/5/4/3/2/1. There will be no change for Race One and Two where point system remains unchanged and awarded to the first fifteen riders as followed: 25/20/16/13/11/10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1.

The second race on Sunday for WorldSBK will be the traditional format. The grid for this race will be determined from the first nine positions in the Tissot Superpole Race, and the grid from 10th onwards will be the positions from Tissot Superpole. Offering three races with different formats will give the teams opportunities to work on different strategies for each race throughout the weekend and will offer even more exciting races for fans and riders to enjoy. On top of this, the weekend will finish with the WorldSSP300 race, which is always a sensational fight to the finish line.