Two-time BSB champion Josh Brookes enters his second season with DAO Racing on the Honda CBR1000RR-R in 2026 as he chases down a problem he first encountered with the bike at the start of 2025.
Speaking to Crash.net at the 2025 Oulton Park test, Brookes explained that he was struggling to get into the corner due to the rear end of the bike working on the brakes, with what he felt was a little contact at the rear which meant he couldn’t stop the bike as he wanted.
Now, with DAO Racing starting its 2026 bid, Brookes says, in an interview with Crash.net, that the problem has plagued him throughout 2025, partly because of the number of tires available on BSB race weekends.
“It wasn’t something we were able to fix last year,” Brookes said.
“The problem at the end of last year was that we had ideas that we wanted to try, but the fact that you have six rear tires for the BSB weekend, you can’t afford to lose time playing stupid buggers, so to speak!
“If that attempt to try something new fails, then you’ve not only lost time, you’ve lost a tire, and you’ve gone nowhere; you’ve actually lost time. [that could’ve been used] getting the bike right for that circuit, for that weekend.
“So, I felt that, even though we had ideas at the end of last year, we never had the courage to go outside the window that we had. [in order] to find a better solution.”
Brookes added that the engine became the main focus of development. The team was happy with its ability in terms of clean performance, but the riders wanted something simpler and more manageable.
“At the end of last year there was a lot of emphasis on the engine,” said Brookes.
“We felt that way […] getting in was a big factor, and then getting in with poverty meant that we were desperate and taking turns; then, you can imagine, the panic going into the corner will only ruin your exit.
“There is a long-standing saying: ‘slow is fast’, ‘slow is fast.’ So, if we are desperate to get into a corner and get out of control, we will definitely spoil our exit.
“It wasn’t that we weren’t doing enough energy, in fact we were doing, in some ways, too much energy. [and] it became slow; which means that we were not fast from the corner, and if we gave power we were doing wheels all over the place.
There seemed to be no solution.
“The idea in the offseason was to try to create a more maneuverable engine rider. So, we don’t want a lot of power, but we want something that’s user-friendly; normal programming methods, something that the rider will enjoy and be confident in, as opposed to trying to put your muscles on the dyno and say ‘look how much power we’re making’, and it’s still a work in progress.
Development on the engine side is something that continued to be worked on during the test in Spain in March, and will be the same at the upcoming official test at BSB Donington on 3-4 April.
He said: “We were hoping to get some signals from the first tests we did in December, but unfortunately because of the weather it was a wasted test.”
So, it wasn’t until we went to Spain a few weeks ago that we completed that guide.
“Both Lee [Jackson] then I chose the same engine, which was nice because when one of us chooses one and the other chooses the other it is very difficult to know which is the right way.
“But luckily we both chose the same, that’s where the direction of development will continue, with an engine that we both thought was light.”
Of course, the motorcycle outlives its engine, so work continues on the chassis side which Brookes described as “experimental”.
“Well, because we had a good time – even the four days we had were not enough – we could do something more in the chassis test,” he said.
“I don’t mean experimenting as we do something different from what other people, other groups don’t have the ability to experiment, it’s part of the tools that are already in the box.
But, unless you have the opportunity to try every setting with every ingredient, you haven’t tried it all, in other words.
“I feel like the weight of the bike – and I don’t mean in the sense of having a bike with the weight in the front, or putting the bike in the back so the weight is in the back, I’m talking about the real thing. [centre of mass] – we changed it a bit, and found some improvements in the package.
“So, it’s like an engine, we’ve started on the road but we’re only part of the road. It feels like a better road, the timing has improved with the initial settings, but until we’ve expanded all the options on this revolutionary idea we won’t know if it’s right.
“The times we did yesterday weren’t good enough to be excited about anyway, but what I heard from the bike and my instincts, from experience, suggest that this is a better track and a better track than we were on last year.”
Both cornerbacks were improved as a result of the changes the team made, but Brookes is still behind some changes.
He said: “It felt like during the test we improved the entry and exit of the corner, the only area we lost was the rotation of the bike in the middle of the corner.”
“So, I’m thinking of another revolution, and the reason I say revolution is because we didn’t have divisions; some divisions that we’ve made are like extreme ends, so going one way is too far and going the other way too far; somewhere in the middle is a lot of gold.
“But in the test we didn’t have every part that could be made for the bike; because of the time and cost constraints of production and things like that we had done in an extreme way, we had two ends of vision.
“Now that we have confirmed the concept, we have to narrow down which part was working well [one] excessive and minor which was good in it [the other] extreme, and find out where that goldilocks point is. So, that is what is being talked about now in the group, and in the next test we hope to make and use those features.
“Fingers crossed is good, otherwise it was a ‘nothing, nothing got’ experience, but I hope it’s not that difficult.”
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