BMW's Motorsport Director spoke highly of Michael van der Mark amid rumours about his future with the German manufacturer.

There will have to be important decisions made at the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team in the coming weeks as the German manufacturer must decide its 2026 rider line-up.

It is already clear that Toprak Razgatlioglu will not remain with BMW after he signed with Pramac Yamaha in MotoGP for next season.

However, the future of Michael van der Mark is up in the air as his contract expires at the end of the 2025 season.

Several rumours have suggested that the Dutch rider will lose his spot at BMW for 2026, but ahead of the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK Round, the BMW bosses refused to speak about their rider line-up for next season.

"We're planning for next year, but it's too early to talk about riders," BMW Motorsport Director Sven Blusch told Speedweek.com

"As a world champion team, there's a lot of interest in our seats. We're not talking about riders at the moment; we're happy with Michael and Toprak. We'll see how things go in 2026 later."

Blusch continued by praising van der Mark, and claiming that without the 32-year-old, BMW would not have won the 2024 World Superbike title.

"Both our riders are working hard to get the bike in the best possible condition," he stated.

"Without Michael, we wouldn't have won the title last year. Everyone's talking about Toprak, but we can't forget Michael's efforts.

"We demonstrated during the winter break how much technical effort we can put into this bike. From the first race until now, we've made many steps forward with Toprak and Michael. I believe we'll be able to do the same in the future."

After Race One at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, van der Mark finds himself in 14th in the 2025 World Superbike Championship.

The big issue for the experienced Dutch rider is that he is 190 points behind his two-time World Superbike Champion teammate, Toprak Razgatlioglu.