WSBK: Jonas Folger gears up for Catalunya wildcard

Jonas Folger will make his WSBK debut this weekend at Catalunya aboard a Yamaha R1.

The ex-MotoGP rider and podium finisher will line up this weekend in World SBK at Catalunya, a track he has raced at many times, he will be riding against many riders who have little experience of the track which will give the German rider an advantage over some of the riders.

Folger currently leads the IDM championship standings, winning every race and blitzing his competition, winning races by 5+ seconds consistently, therefore he is using his WSBK debut as a job interview, hoping to impress the teams, particularly the Yamaha teams enough to hire him full time for 2021.

Jonas Folger had to quit his rookie MotoGP season partway through due to Gilbert’s syndrome, the rider disappeared from the map before finally making a re-appearance on social media, the rider was then signed by Yamaha to be their MotoGP test rider for 2019, this was until Yamaha shut the entire program down, focusing on data from their Japanese riders instead. We looked at this more in depth here.

If Folger can come away with some solid results this weekend, it will bode well for the 27-year-old chances of returning to the world stage full time, he made a Moto2 comeback in 2019 but rejected full time rides due to his Yamaha contract, also stating that he does not have a desire to ride anything less than 1000cc.

Featured image – Yamaha Racing