SBK, Baz-Ten Kate: A race against time! All or nothing.

He’s one of the intriguing subjects of the year-end market. Who are we talking about? Simple, Loris Baz, who hasn’t renewed his contract with Ten Kate at the moment. A long-anticipated story, which hasn’t yet found its epilogue. The main  issue is a budget which the Dutch team doesn’t know if they have or not.

To be in the starting blocks of the 2021 season,they'll need  2 million Euros. Or, instead, much less might be enough. The fact is that Ten Kate aims to compete in a World Championship where its goal is to aspire to top positions and, consequently, the cost of material has a significant impact.

This is precisely why they’re waiting in the Netherlands for answers from a new sponsor, whose entry would allow the team to seal the budget and guarantee that Loris Baz remains: “At the moment, everything is still open,” is what we read in Kervin Bos' interview with  Speedweek.  “Our goal is to be present at the start of the World Superbike, and we’re making careful assessments with this new sponsor. In fact, we want to have all the certainties we need,” he added, “also because we mustn’t forget the impact that COVID has had on our company and on the economy in general.”

The team manager was concise and clear in confirming that Ten Kate wants to do everything to be present at the start of the 2021 Championship with the French rider. But there’s a set date in all this: January 10th, when the entry lists will have to be presented to Dorna.

Certainly, Baz didn’t just sit back and wait. He’s shopping  around. The French rider has been probing some options and, among these, there's Pedercini. For Lucio, Baz remains the priority for the second Kawasaki but, right now, the former rider also has to deal with the 2021 budget.

Loris Baz is tempting, also since the bar would rise exponentially with him, given that the team only has Cresson. There are definitely several riders looking for a bike right now, and that includes Sandro Cortese  – who’s still struggling with recovering from an injury he sustained this summer in Portimao  – as well as the Argentine rider, Tati Mercado: Pedercini knows him well and would take him into consideration.