The British Supersport rookie to keep an eye on.

The 2025 season sees last year’s British Supersport top-3 all remain in the class for another season. After last year’s performances, you would be hard-pressed to imagine anyone else challenging them this year. That is apart from 2024’s Sportbike Championship runner-up, Edoardo Columbi.

Columbi burst onto the British racing scene at the 2024 season opener at Oulton Park. Getting to grips with British racing circuits would be no issue for the young Italian, as he would go on to win six of the opening eight races. Two further race wins would see Columbi all but set to clinch the title heading into the season’s final round.

However, a mistaken tyre choice in the round’s opening race would see the Italian pick up just four points compared to Richard Cooper’s thirty-five, thanks to the new points system for the finale.

Despite his best efforts and going on to win the race the next day’s race, it wasn’t enough to overhaul the points advantage Cooper had picked up the race previous. Columbi would miss the championship by just four and a half points.

A strong first season on UK shores sees Columbi move into British Supersport for this coming season. The Italian joins TAS Racing, seeing the team return to the Supersport class for the first time since 2011 when they won the title with Alastair Seeley. Columbi is to be armed with a Ducati V2 machine.

The Ducati is now a well-proven machine within the Supersport class, with Ben Currie winning the championship in 2023 and Luke Jones winning races aboard their Ducatis.

The step from Sportbike into Supersport is unproven, but with an entire season’s experience of racing in the UK now under his belt, Columbi can now concentrate on learning the bike. However, judging by social media, the Italian is already well underway with getting laps in aboard a Ducati supersport machine.

If the Italian can repeat even a fraction of the performances seen from him last year – he could well be in good stead to give supersport’s ‘Big 3’ a run for their money.