Moto Rapido Racing to fight for multiple titles in 2025 with Leon Haslam and Ben Currie

At Motorcycle Live, World Superbikes and MotoGP commentator Greg Haines spoke with Leon Haslam, Ben Currie, and Steve ‘Wilf’ Moore on the Ducati stand to discuss the Moto Rapido Racing team’s upcoming season.

Welcome to Moto Rapido Racing Leon. You’re sitting between the two men you’re going to be spending a lot of time with next year.

Leon: It’s so exciting. One to be back with Ducati, and to be joining Moto Rapido. Me and Ben have known each other for a long time, we use the same trainer and train together, so really looking forward to getting the season going. 

Like you say, it all started in the Ducati family, and in later years with Airwaves, so does it feel like coming home?

Leon: I started in Superbike with Ducati in 2003. And got my first World Superbike podium and my first BSB win all with Ducati. So, to come back again, especially with the Panigale V4, I’m really excited. 

Steve, you’ve obviously got the two categories to compete in again with Leon in Superbike and Ben in Supersport, but with two great peddlers the chances are looking great I think.

Wilf: I think so, yeah! I’m happy, very happy, with the strong lineup. We needed to make a bit of a step. Our theory was that we needed a slightly more aggressive rider than we’ve had in the past and I think we’ve got that in Leon. So that should work. And Ben and Leon work and train together all the time so this is a real team effort this. It’s two classes but no garage wall, the whole thing is going to work together. Leon’s going to do a bit of spotting for Ben and help with his experience, and we’ll Leon’s father involved in spotting for both riders.

I remember seeing Ron spotting when you were in World Superbikes Leon. Is that right that you’re a more aggressive rider? Is that what we’ve got for 2025!

Leon: I’m super smooth, what are you talking about!

Ben, you were British Supersport champion in 2023, not too far off in 2024, but I’m sure you’re going to be there again in ’25.

Ben: Absolutely. I always plan on being at the front end of the championship so I don’t think anything will change. We’ll be there challenging, it’s going to be a really competitive year in Supersport, obviously some of the announcements are coming out and there’ll be some really top riders and good teams. 

I’m really looking forward to the challenge and like the boys said, the team atmosphere with Leon on the other side of the garage does bring a different element to the team with his experience, he’s ridden for some for the best teams in the world, so he has the pedigree at that level. I can definitely learn something from him and I’m looking forward to that. I just think as a team, all of us, we can really challenge for two British titles, and I think that would be an amazing achievement. 

Wilf, imagine how good that would be sitting here this time next year celebrating both titles. You shouldn’t get ahead of yourself, but it could happen.

Wilf: Well, that’s the plan. We’ve made some serious investment in machinery and some staff to add to the mixture as well, so we will make a real push with more technical staff coming in, particularly to help out with the Supersport side. And I think it will be a much more pleasant negotiation meeting this time next year when I’m sat with Fabrizio talking about the ’26 budget.

The Showdown, obviously we’ve had a couple of seasons with this new look. It’s not like it was when it used to reset for the top few riders. Wilf, what do you make of the current format as a team principal? It seems to have worked with half a point deciding it last year, one point this year.

Wilf: I’m actually of how we’re working now. I think it’s a good compromise between the traditional Showdown with the huge ranking of points at the end, and also adding a crescendo to the end of the season. It particularly helps some of the smaller teams as well where they don’t have the enormous capacity with pre-season testing. That means if they don’t quite hit the ground running at round one, they can catch up, and that’s why we see this funnel effect at the end of the year. It works for us, and it works for everybody, I think. Except for the guy that lost it by a point. 

Shakey Byrne said that the Showdown has worked for him, and it hasn’t worked for him. It can be cruel, but it can work well. But what we’ve got now does seem to work very well.

Leon: I’m more for how it works now. For me a championship is won over the whole season. With old format you could have an amazing 90% of the season and then lose it all just at the last round. So, I think it’s more credible for the champion, you have to build and finish every race. And as the rounds build up that’s when you definitely have to be at the sharp end.

How did the Moto Rapido deal come about Leon? I guess the conversations didn’t go on too long did they, they just seemed to click?

Leon: From my perspective I ran my own team with another manufacturer, and it was getting to the point where I wasn’t achieving what I wanted to, the finances, the general day to day was a lot of work and I wasn’t seeing a way forward. I made a decision to not do that anymore. I had a few options and was speaking to a few people, and the very first conversation I had with Wilf and Hammy was so positive. They just wanted to win and as a rider you want that want. From that point onwards I knew which way I wanted to go.

You were with another brand before coming back to BSB. You were with Álvaro Bautista, it was a tricky time. But I guess those hard times make you a better rider don’t they?

Leon: With the HRC project, Álvaro had just won 15 races and come to Honda and we actually got exactly the same amount of points that year we both beat each other equally in the championship. I then came back to BSB ,and he went on to be a world champion, so that’s the way that went. The Ducati brand obviously suited him, he’s doing fantastic in Worlds, and it’s great to see what Ducati are doing and how hard they are pushing to make it better and better. 

Ben with Supersport, we’ve seen these balancing rules coming in in the World championships and BSB, and the general feeling is it’s worked a bit better in BSB but maybe it’s a bit out of kilter in Worlds. How’s it been for you up against Jack Kennedy and the other riders?

Ben: You know Jack and me actually caught up last night and we were sharing some stories of the season and we were commenting on how enjoyable it was in Supersport this year with the different bikes, the different ccs. It created a different element and reminded me of the olden day MotoGP when you would go to a certain track and the Yamaha would be strong and then you would go to another track, and it would be the Honda etc. And it was a little bit the same where we had strength in some areas and they had strengths in others, and it just made a really good dynamic. 

The Supersport project for the future just looks amazing. It looks awesome to be a part of. These smaller cc motorcycles seem to be the future of motorcycles. You only have to look here on the stand, and you’ve got the new Panigale V2, super lightweight, the development is just exciting. 

Not to go off on a tangent, but to see Ducati developing these bikes and putting effort in is awesome. Some manufacturers are ramping down their projects while these guys are ramping it up. Ducati is an awesome brand to be a part of, and especially in the Supersport class.

Wilf, maybe you could enlighten us a bit. I know we’ve spoken previously about the Panigale V2, but there’s some MotoGP development going into those bikes.

Wilf: Ducati seem to be innovating where others are stagnating and that’s a really good thing to be a part of. We’ve seen some clues as to what’s coming to the future in Superbike and Supersport but the exciting thing at the moment is the new V2. The weight of the bike is everything. That’s absolutely crucial. 

I’ve got endless spreadsheets and calculations that tell Ben how hard the bike will accelerate faster if he loses another kilo. So, for Ducati to take 17 kilograms off a motorcycle, that’s the difference between a road bike and the lightest we could possibly make a Supersport bike, by covering it in titanium and carbon, and spending a fortune on it. And these guys have rolled out a road bike that has a catalytic converter, number plate and headlights, that weighs the same as a Supersport bike. So, I’m really excited to see what in the future what we can do with that Supersport prospect.

What are your opinions on these minimum combined weights we’ve seen in World Superbikes and other places. Some people are really for it, and some are really against it.

Wilf: I think it’s a good balance. We have it in BSB and Supersport. The Ducati by regulation has to be three kilos heavier than all the other bikes, which gives Ben a bit of leeway. But it does mean that the balancing regulations are based on acceleration and declaration, not just power, and I think it works. I expect with the new bikes that will be levelled out. It does penalise the big heavy guys, in the sense that have to spend a lot more money on their bikes to get to their weight. So over winter we just normally check in with Ben to see how much titanium we’re going to have to buy for his bike depending on how much barbeque he’s going to have in Oz!

Ben: The winter was a tough ride actually trying to get those last couple of kilos off. It’s an age-old thing, being light is going to make you faster in a straight line, but when you’ve got a technical team owner like Wilf who can actually show you a spreadsheet that says if you lose X amount of grammes it’ll amount to Y amount of speed down the back straight of Brands for instance. When you see that you think, ‘I’m going to stop eating now!’ That’s literally what it’s like. 

But you were touching about the balancing rules and for the most part I think it’s spot on. We spoke about this recently where I think Álvaro has been penalised the most out of everybody. It’s hard when someone dominates a championship, there must be something not right. So, you penalise the guy right, but you see this year that he’s struggled a lot, and I would say that’s got something to do with the seven kilos that they’ve had to put on the motorcycle, and at one point it was going to be even more than that. It is a fine line between penalising someone for doing an amazing job and making it fair. The light riders have less strength, and they can’t move the bike as somebody like Toprak who is a lot taller, stronger. It is a fine line, and I think it will improve, but in terms of Supersport it’s pretty damn close.

I suppose the thing is it needs to be a good show as well. It needs to be fair; you need a comprise, but it needs to be a good show otherwise no one’s going to watch.

Leon: I was teammates with Álvaro, he’s 55 kilos without his leathers. I’ve always raced in the high 60’s so he’s about a 10 kilo difference and most circuits he was about 0.4 a lap quicker just in high throttle areas, so those are the sort of numbers you’re looking at on the bigger World Superbike circuits which are open and faster. 

What’s your feeling going into the new season. Your last win was 2018 when you won the title, you must be motivated to get a win in straight away next year.

Leon: I was in World Championships 2019, 2020, 2021. We came very close to winning twice this year, Oulton and Donington, it was half a wheel or something. It’s been a bit of a grind the last couple of years, we’ve had a podium, but my motivation is to win. We’ve ticked all the boxes, joined the right manufacturer in Ducati, got in the right team with Moto Rapido, and it’s just down to me now.