Bridgestone's New Track Slick Claims a Faster Lap With a New 'Sprint' Tire Option

Bridgestone's new Racing Battlax V03 is a track-only slick built for riders chasing outright grip rather than tread life, and it's launching across Europe and North America in 2026 aimed at both professional and serious amateur track riders. The tire draws on compound technology Bridgestone has refined through the FIM Endurance World Championship, where a Bridgestone-supplied team has won five years running.

The notable addition is a rear 'Sprint spec' — the first time Bridgestone has offered it — built specifically for shorter, qualifying-length stints where peak grip in the first few laps matters more than consistency across a long run. Bridgestone says the standard V03 cuts lap times by 1.3% over its predecessor, the V02, while the Sprint-spec rear goes further: a 1.9% reduction compared to the V02 Soft compound, while Bridgestone says it retains the brand's characteristic grip retention even after repeated hot laps.

It's a narrow product in the sense that it's not going anywhere near a street bike, but the Sprint-spec split is a real structural change to how Bridgestone sells its top tier of tire — track riders now get to choose between a tire tuned for a 20-minute session and one tuned for a single fast lap, instead of one compound trying to do both.