Christian Iddon is looking forward to a fourth consecutive season of the British Superbike Championship in the saddle of a Tyco BMW.
And this year sees the Stockport rider climb aboard a brand new bike for the first time during his stint with the Northern Ireland squad.
Iddon laments the lack of track time the team have had during the run-up to the season opener at Silverstone this weekend, but is buoyed by the excitement at the prospect of getting to grips with the brand-new BMW.
Iddon said: “I feel like we’ve never quite achieved what we want to achieve.
“It’s rare you get four years with a team, there’s a number of reasons behind that, but I think it shows we work well together.
“We feel there’s more to come from the partnership. It’s nice to be back with the same team, and it’s amazing to be doing it on a new bike. That’s the boost that we needed.”
The new BMW S1000RR has already hit the tracks in World Superbikes, but free practice at Silverstone will be the first time that the Tyco BMW will be on track alongside other BSB teams.
“The base bike is amazing, I prefer riding it, It’s a much nicer ride despite the fact it’s not fully ready,” added Iddon.
“The bike itself is a much more compact package, it’s incredibly refined compared to the previous model, which was already a great bike, so it bodes well.
“We won’t have all the parts until round three or four, and obviously development of a bike is an ongoing process, right now we’ve barely scratched the surface, our test programme has been very, very short.
“It seems like we’re on the back foot and I’m sure we are, I’ve not been on a bike for a while so I’m a bit rusty, there’s definitely time in myself, I’m very positive about the bike.
“By the nature of the sport it’s how things work as a package, and the amount of that we’ve done compared with others is obviously less. Hopefully we can pull a few surprises.
“Regardless, my end goal remains the same, I only race in the championship for one reason, I’m just excited about getting back riding, and seeing all the British Superbike fans at Silverstone.”
Iddon will hit the track at Silverstone for the first time on Friday, April 19, during free practice, qualifying for round one of the 2019 championship takes place on Saturday and the lights go out for race one on Sunday.