Peter Hickman and James Ellison endured a baptism of fire with the 2019 Smiths BMW S1000RR at Silverstone after the team had only a month to change the bikes from road to Bennetts British Superbike race spec.

Neither rider had any serious time to test the all-new model before the opening Silverstone round, so grabbed what track-time they could before a more crucial test at Oulton Park on Thursday.

Importantly, neither bike suffered a technical issue so it should now be down to both riders and their individual setups.

“It’s been a tough weekend, but it was never going to be easy with the bikes arriving late and we were hoping to fall on a setting that worked but didn’t," said Hickman.

At the same time, we’ve come away with two points-scoring finishes from what was essentially a test weekend and the good thing is that we made progress and moved forward all weekend.

"We’ve learned loads and haven’t been a million miles away so I can’t complain too much and there are a lot of positives to take away. The potential is clearly there so we’ve got plenty to work with and build on so I’m confident we’ll be a lot stronger at round two.”
 
Ellison added: “We always knew round one was going to be a lot of hard work, but we worked really well as a team and got through a lot, so we’ve been able to move forward all the time and now have a good direction to move in.

"The potential in the bike is huge and we’ve got a lot more work to get through, but we know what works and what doesn’t, and we’ve improved all weekend.

"It’s testament to the team that we’ve been able to do what we’ve done in a short space of time. I already feel at home in the team so am looking forward already to the second round.”