What stole the attention in the Jerez World Superbike tests were above all the newcomers and the new pairings. Inevitably, the return of Andrea Iannone on a racing bike after a four-year disqualification was the focus, but the debut of Jonathan Rea on the Yamaha and that of Axel Bassani on the Kawasaki also greatly intrigued fans.
There were also those who remained where they were, but still experienced a particularly significant two-day test in Andalusia. This is the case of reigning champion Alvaro Bautista, who on Wednesday had his first contact with the new regulation that he has contested so much in recent weeks, which imposes a minimum weight that takes into account the bike and rider together. Which will require him to increase the weight of his Ducati by 7 kg, as he himself explained at the end of the session.
“We focused on the 2024 regulations, especially on the weight. We tried different solutions, putting the weight in different areas of the bike, precisely to understand how the behavior changes. It’s not easy, because the bike goes very well, but if you add 7 kg changes, especially in fast corners. Today we collected a lot of data that will be useful for working this winter and understanding what the right basis could be in terms of weight distribution”, said Bautista.
If this rule was designed above all to help heavier riders during acceleration, it is not in this aspect that the Panigale V4 seems to change its behavior the most.
“No, it’s mainly the inertia that I feel in the fastest corners. Here in Jerez mainly in the fastest section everything is more difficult. But in acceleration there isn’t much difference. Maybe in braking there’s a little more inertia when it comes to stopping the bike. The biggest problem for me, however, are the fast corners.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati
Yesterday was a test that we could define as “plug & play”, mainly used to collect data. The next phase will be to study what solutions to take to find the right feeling again.
“At the moment we haven’t tried anything new, we’ve only concentrated on this aspect. We’ve collected a lot of data and now they will have to study it in Borgo Panigale, also to try to play with the set-up of the bike. For example, we can work on the length and on the height of the bike. For the moment however we have not touched anything, we have only increased the weight, modifying the area in which we applied it to understand how the behavior changes. Now we will start thinking about set-up solutions to have a better feeling”.
On the other side of the garage he found his new teammate Nicolò Bulega for the first time and the reigning Supersport world champion immediately presented himself with an important calling card, setting the second fastest time of the day, behind only the Yamaha of Remy Gardner.
“I already knew that he is a very fast rider, furthermore he had already had the opportunity to try the bike in three or four tests, so he knew it and also had a basic set-up to start from. On the one hand I didn’t expect it, but on the other hand yes. He was very quick to find the feeling with the bike, but I was more focused on myself and on finding the right feeling with more weight on the bike. Fortunately, it’s only the first test, so we still have a lot of time to find the solution to our problems.”
Finally, the two-time world champion also spent a few words on the return of Iannone, who like him rides a Panigale V4, but with the colors of the GoEleven team: “He’s fast, but he’s always been fast in the past too. problem for him will be when the races come, because it’s one thing to do a test, but doing a race is another thing. But his performance certainly impressed me, because he was very fast. However, it’s always nice to have strong drivers in the championship”.
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