After a year in the MotoGP World Championship, Somkiat Chantra will move to World Superbikes for the 2026 season.

Ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix, it was announced that the LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider would move to World Superbikes for the 2026 season.

The Thai rider has spent a year in the MotoGP World Championship and will ride for the Honda Racing Corporation in the World Superbike Championship next season.

Chantra's rookie season in MotoGP was plagued by injuries and by an underperforming Honda RC213V that was not at the same level as the Honda HRC Castrol squad.

Across the 12 race weekends that Chantra competed in before the announcement that he would move to World Superbikes, he was able to score three points, with three 15th-place finishes.

"I’m really happy! When a seat with a factory team in WorldSBK was interested, I thought, ‘Oh, wow! It’s a new challenge for me, so I’m really excited'," Chantra said.

"Let’s see at the end of the year, because we will have a test on a superbike. Let’s see how it goes; for sure, we’ll be having fun next season. Here in MotoGP, there is a lot to learn about the electronics.

"The bikes will be quite different, but I hope that I find the electronics to be similar there, so I can apply things I’ve learned in my MotoGP rookie season to my rookie season in WorldSBK.

"I’m really happy and proud to be the first Thai full-time WorldSBK rider. Let’s see what we can accomplish next season!"