Peter Hickman will join Michael Rutter and Stuart Easton in Robin Croft’s Bathams SMT BMW squad for a three-pronged assault on the Asia race.

Hickman, who convincingly won the race last year, will take a third BMW S1000RR to the Guia circuit in an attempt to retain his crown as Croft fields arguably the strongest-ever team to enter the last big road race of the year.

“It’s the 50th running of the Macau motorcycle GP and my riders will have 13 wins between them leading up to the event. Taking three potential winners shows how seriously we are taking the event this year,” Croft told BSN this morning.

“I am really excited about it and it is going to be the first time that I have jumped back on a BMW in a year, and the last time I rode a BMW I won there. So it should be good and looking forward to it,” said Hickman, speaking to bikesportnews.com from Brands Hatch.

“It is quite a big change from riding the Kawasaki so I am expecting a big change to go back [to riding a BMW again]. I want to say a big thanks to Robin Croft and SMT and all the sponsors for putting it together. I was a little big stuck and it is good that they have jumped in there and helped out.”