SBK | Bautista: “Less pain than the first day, but I'm not 100%”

The reigning world champion is, on paper, the man to beat for the following season. However, Alvaro Bautista did not show up in shape for the Jerez tests, due to a back injury suffered in the Superbike tests last November on the Andalusian track. With his new teammate absolutely dominating the two days, the Spaniard was forced to chase, finishing Day 2 in 16th position.

However, the stopwatch was the last thing on the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider's mind, who used the two days of testing to rediscover his sensations on the bike and understand what his real physical condition was after the stop. If on the first day he had to fight more against the pain than against the burden imposed by the regulation, on Day 2 the situation improved slightly, allowing him to take steps forward, albeit small.

“The objective of the second day was not to be worse than Day 1, my physical condition was not the best,” explained Bautista to the microphones of worldsbk.com at the end of the two days of testing. “Luckily on Day 2 I was a little better, not 100% but at least the pain didn't get worse. It still hurts a bit, especially in the left corners I don't feel great. But at least it went a little better, so I'm improving my physical condition.”

The small respite from the pain allowed both Bautista and the team to work a little more on the bike, although not 100% conditioned by physical fitness: “We managed to make a work plan with the bike we chose the first day. We tried a couple of settings to see if we found something good and something else that didn't work. At least we collected data, we shot and that's the good thing. We carried out a job like a normal pre-season, we tried some changes on the setup and decided which one was best.”

“The positive thing is that I was able to do many laps, even if with a bit of pain. The good thing is that the pain didn't get worse, but remained stable,” says the reigning champion, who explains in broad terms how he spent the winter. “Basically I couldn't train between November and December, I just concentrated on recovering with physiotherapy. With the nerve the process is always very slow, you can't do too much, you have to wait without forcing. I started training at the beginning of the year, so a couple of weeks.”

Therefore, the real objective of the Jerez tests was not so much to work on weight distribution to add the now famous 7kg of ballast, but to check the physical condition astride the Panigale V4R: “The plan was to check my condition on the bike, fortunately I can drive, albeit not perfectly, but I can do it. Now we have two days of rest before carrying out another two days of testing in Portimao, in which however to take a step forward. Then from there we will see and make a real plan. I hope to improve and from there we will try to adapt day by day to try to arrive at the first appointment in Australia in the best possible shape.”

“I can't ride as I want, it's difficult to understand anything about the bike now. It's certainly more difficult than last season because the bike is heavier. First of all I have to sort myself out, then when I'm 100% and can ride as I want, we'll work on the bike. Weight? If you want technical details, you have to ask the engineers, not the pilots,” concludes Bautista.