Supersport World Championship leader Stefano Manzi will step up to the FIM Superbike World Championship in 2026 with the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team.
Manzi, who is currently in his third season with Yamaha in the FIM Supersport World Championship, will make the step into the premier class of production racing on a new, two-year contract with Yamaha Motor Europe.
Twice a runner-up in the Supersport class with Yamaha in 2023 and 2024, Manzi is currently leading the 2025 championship on the all new R9, having extended his lead to 59 points with an emphatic double victory in Hungary this past weekend.
Nine-times a World Supersport race winner on the R6, Manzi impressed by adapting quickly to the R9 for 2025 – winning the new Supersport model’s first ever race in Australia before going on to take another six victories to date.
Earlier this year, the 26-year-old tested the R1 WorldSBK for the first time at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, showing consistent improvement throughout his day on the bike to make a positive impression.
Manzi began his international motorcycle racing career in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, in which he finished third overall in both 2013 and 2014. He competed in Moto3 and Moto2 Grand Prix between 2015 and 2021, achieving a best result of fourth place in Moto2. He moved to the World Supersport Championship in 2022 and finished sixth overall before joining Yamaha in 2023.
Manzi’s arrival completes the 2026 line-up for the GYTR GRT Yamaha Team, with the Italian set to line-up alongside Remy Gardner who remains with Filippo Conti’s team for a fourth year next season.
Niccolò Canepa – Road Racing Sporting Manager, Yamaha Motor Europe
“Firstly, I would like to extend our thanks to Dominique Aegerter for his hard work and commitment, not only over the last three seasons in WorldSBK but prior to that too. He won two World Championships with Yamaha in Supersport before stepping up to WorldSBK in 2023. While our journey together in WorldSBK comes to an end, we are, together with his management, exploring the possibility to keep him in the Yamaha family moving forwards.
“Now is the time to promote another potential Supersport World Champion to the Superbike class, and we are pleased to announce that Stefano Manzi will move to WorldSBK with GYTR GRT Yamaha next year, again an example of Yamaha’s step-up philosophy, promoting the young talent already within our ranks. Over his three years in World Supersport with Yamaha, Stefano has made huge progress and we have been impressed by his approach which has ultimately put him in the position he is in now, leading the Supersport World Championship by 59 points. He also impressed us as he made his debut on the R1 at the recent Misano test, so for us he was a natural choice for a WorldSBK ride and hopefully he will be making that step as a World Champion.”
Stefano Manzi
“I am super happy and proud; this is a step that you dream of when you are riding in the smaller classes – you always want to be in the top class. I am excited to continue with this project with Yamaha because I started with Yamaha in 2023 and every year we have battled hard and achieved some great results with progress each season. This year, we started a new project with the R9 and it has been going so well, so to continue my relationship with Yamaha with another new challenge is really exciting. I enjoyed riding the Superbike earlier this year, and I am really looking forward to getting started but for now, my focus remains on doing the best job for the Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing team in World Supersport until the end of the season.”
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©Words/Images above are from an official press release posted courtesy of the team
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