08.03.2023 |
Robin Miller |
WorldSBK

WorldSBK 2023 hasn’t got off to the strongest of starts for KRT’s Jonathan Rea leaving two rounds of competition with just one podium to his name.

James Whitham explains how the six-time world champion is hoping that test sessions between now and the next round at Assen will give his Kawasaki the extra poke it needs to compete with Ducati.

“I don’t quite know what’s going on with Jonathan,” Whitham told Bikesportnews.com as he attempted to analyse the great man’s attempt to make history with his seventh title. “But I’ve actually thought for two or three years, like I’ve told you, that the bike isn’t the best in the championship.

“Over the last few years, and with no disrespect to Alex [Lowes] who is a bloody good rider, he is more the benchmark of where the Kawasaki is. And I think everything else that Jonathan has done has been mainly because of Jonathan’s riding, his work ethic and the way he is able to ride round and not be on the most competitive bike.

“The Yamaha and especially Ducati have moved on and the bar has been pushed up a little bit,’ he continued. “You can tell by the way riders like [Axel] Bassani and [Michael] Rinaldi have raised their game and, of course, [Alvaro] Bautista. I know he fell off at Mandalika but that one seems to be the most treacherous circuit – with grip on line but no grip offline – that I have ever seen. It is a place which will catch people out really, really easily.”

BSN:”But going back to Jonathan, in the last couple of years he has been riding more aggressively than ever, certainly last year.”

Whitham:”But I think he’s had to, because of the difference with that bike. He’s had to raise his game and raise his game. They’ve come up with little solutions to make the bike better but I don’t think they are going to be able to make it that much better. And for me, now of the three we chose, Ducati, Yamaha and Kawasaki to be at the top in the hands of Bautista, Toprak [Razgatlioglu] and Johnny, it looks like, is going to be third in line.

“I wouldn’t give up on Jonathan, we know what he’s like and can reinvent himself when he needs to but I do think the bike simply doesn’t look good enough for him at the minute.”

BSN: “And what about the other Kawasaki’s in the game, particularly the one ridden by Tom Sykes. I’ve never known Sykesy have such a bad time. Is it also down to the bike or what do you think is going on there?”

Whitham: “I honestly don’t know what is going on as, on this occasion, I wasn’t there.
That team has always been a good team, Manuel Puccetti is a good bloke who runs a tight ship and his bike has always been the best of the rest of the Kawasakis. Part of the reason, possibly, was Tom not being very well, something I can only describe as being the equivalent of Delhi belly. I’ve actually had something similar when I’ve been in the Far East. Nothing wrong with being there it’s just different food etc.

“What I was left with after watching everything from Mandalika was a treacherous circuit but beautiful. And even though he slid off and got clobbered by his bike in one race, Alvaro Bautista bounced back in race two, won that from way back, although he had a little bit of help when the race was stopped, and he’s looking like the man for the season.

“Now I know there are a couple of tests coming up. Kawasaki has arranged two and I believe Honda are piggy-backing on one and everybody else on the other. One is at Aragon and one at Barcelona. I think Barcelona, which is coming up in a couple of meetings, will be critical for everybody because of what happened last year – Bautista just cleared off.”

BSN: “And do you think Kawasaki are going to get the extra 500 revs we were talking about last week, they obviously didn’t have it this time.”

Whitham: “I assumed they would be getting that and anybody who was watching would have concluded ‘Yes, they need a little bit of a leg up.’ We seem to be in a position now where everybody seems to be getting concession parts, concession rules, one bike has this and another has that. If they’re going to do it individually and level the rules individually then to me it surely needs some levelling up. If you’re gonna make the rules exactly the same for everybody then that’s a different thing but that’s how it used to be. It was down to you to arrange your game but now it seems to be that people, for example, Honda is running with a lot of concession parts and can alter the chassis which has helped them.

“It seemed to me at the end of last year that Kawasaki were going to need a bit of a leg up and the extra 500 revs they wanted would have been sensible. Especially given what we all knew off season, that Ducati were getting another four or five brake horsepower making a bike better that was already very good. I don’t know how these things work.”

BSN: “But James, it seems to us that World Superbike is moving more and more towards MotoGP. Aren’t these bikes supposed to be based on road bikes but they’re miles away and changing all the time?”

Whitham: “I think there’s a bigger picture and the bigger picture here, and has been for a couple of years, poses the question ‘Should Superbikes go down the route of backing off to become more like road bikes – should we be running more like Superstock rules? Superstock bikes have 210 brake horse power, isn’t that enough to have exciting racing?’

“Yes it is! Exciting racing doesn’t come from seeing a bike with 250bhp instead of 230bhp. Exciting racing come from five people together having exactly the same power and similar speed round the track. It’s a big question but what we don’t want is for it to slip back to the days when certain bikes, because of the rules, seemed to have an advantage. By the same token, what you don’t want to do is handicap engineers who have done one helluva good job, and I am talking here about Ducati who are brilliant at interpreting the rules in their favour. They seem to have some very talented and lateral thinking engineers – in MotoGP as well – that make the difference and you don’t want to penalise that.”

BSN: “It is remarkable because they are up against much bigger manufacturers, although they are now owned by Porsche, and this year we can see that it might be Ducati one, two and three can’t we?”

Whitham: “It’s a possibility but I have to say that I wouldn’t want that simply because you don’t want a championship dominated by one manufacturer. But there again should you handicap somebody for doing a brilliant job and this sport is as much about engineering as riding, we’ve always said that. It’s why there’s a manufacturers championship as well as one for riders. “

BSN” “Making the assumption that Bautista is headed towards a second world championship who do you think the main threats to him are now if not Toprak or Jonathan?”

Whitham: “I say don’t give up on Jonathan yet. Toprak is the man who, over a season,
will push Bautista for wins but I wouldn’t write off the other two Ducati favourites, Bassani and Rinaldi. They have real speed and may be top three contenders, without forgetting [Danilo] Petrucci who rode really well at Philip Island.

“The next round at Assen will be very interesting because I think the Ducatis seem to have less advantage there and Toprak and Jonathan have done well.

“Assen, over a month away, will have increased interest in the form of our British newcomers to the series. Rumour has it Taz Mackenzie will have a much improved Honda Supersport, Harry Truelove has done well on his Triumph and Brad Ray’s introduction to WorldSBK will be on a circuit he knows well via BSB. Finally, good wishes to Loris Baz who will be out of action with a broken leg for some time.”

04.03.2023 |
Gordon Ritchie |
WorldSBK

KRT’s Jonathan Rea was fighting an intestinal bug before he even started racing at Mandalika, but he also ended up fighting some riders he never expected to in any WorldSBK race. He even had to battle hard to keep his own teammate Alex Lowes at bay, with Rea a lowly ninth and Lowes tenth by Saturday’s flag.

Bautista and Razgatlioglu finishing up ahead is one thing, and Locatelli was a bona-fide factory rider on the Race One podium. But Bassani, Petrucci, Van der Mark, Vierge and Aegerter? In any normal time they would be Rea fodder all day and half the next day but it is not normal times for a Kawasaki team that is clearly not at its peak compared to previous years. Maybe they will come good soon, but up until Race One at Mandalika, it has been a kind of disaster.

“Seriously, when my bike is working well, it’s working very well,” said Rea, who came to see the media even though he was not one of the top six finishers. “When it has grip, everything is balanced and I can really make the difference. The problem when the front tyre is destroyed, you can’t make the difference. You can’t push the bike like you like. You’re more just balancing.

“It’s a balancing act to bring the bike home.

“So, we have to take some responsibility that we’re not getting the setup perfect right now, but I feel when everything’s good we’re still getting the best out of the bike.”

Rea was also penalised by three grid positions for slowing on the racing line just as Philipp Öttl and his GoEleven Ducati were on a fast lap. Rea didn’t see him, but should not have slowed in any case, and he put his hand up to take the blame, and accept his punishment.

“In Superpole I got a lap cancelled [a yellow flag he could do nothing about] and then of course the penalty for being in the way of Philipp Oettl, so I’m really sorry about that,” Rea admitted. “I was actually quite on it until that sector. Bassani disturbed me in the corners before and I just rolled out of the gas. As I was rolling out of the gas, I looked round and he was there. So, big apologies for that. No excuses, really.”

Rea started from the third row of the grid, not the second row that his best lap time promised him.
The Northern Irishman’s tyre choice of SC2 front and SCO was ‘Hobson’s choice’. No choice at all in the track and temperature conditions.

When told Bautista could use the SC1 front and SCX rear, Rea said, “I’m not heavy. I’m of average build, but even me, our bike makes performance in the braking area, trail braking, and we put so much energy through the front tyre because we lose out in other areas that it’s very easy to overheat and destroy the front. So, when there’s a harder option available that’s generally, especially in hot conditions, we’re forced to use that. Then the rear tyre, it’s been a very mixed bag because yesterday a lot of riders used the 800 [SCX development tyre]. Yesterday I used SC0 in the morning and then 800 in the afternoon. Not too bad. This morning [in FP3] we started with the 800 again and it destroyed itself within laps, like completely destroyed itself.

“I had riders come to my box worrying about safety, worrying about finishing the race, what we’re going to do. We need to do something.

“For me, the logic was to go back to the SC0, the harder tyre that was guaranteed to finish the race. A little bit slower than the 800, but I actually was quite impressed with the tyre linearity in the rear. It was quite linear. Just the front I really struggled with. So, just mixed bag really. But we were forced into those tyre decisions.”

One brave media soul asked Rea the question, ‘This must be one of the worst races since you were in Kawasaki?’ Apart from races he crashed or had other unforeseen problems in, of course.
Rea accepted the premise completely, “Yeah, 100 per cent. Potentially one of my worst results in my career, maybe. I can’t remember battling for top tens, even with Honda.” It was that bad of a first race day in Indonesia for Rea, who is looking for overnight improvements to get somewhere near his personal best again before the long spring break in the calendar begins.

20.02.2023 |
Christina Bulpett |
WorldSBK

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea returned to his second home on Monday as testing resumed ahead of the 2023 WorldSBK season opener at Phillip Island.

Four hours apiece across Monday and Tuesday, and with perfect weather conditions compared to November’s recent visit to the Australian Grand Prix Circuit, is allowing the six-time champion to thoroughly analyse recent steps made with the Ninja ZX10-RR during January’s European testing at Jerez and Portimao. With the Northern Irishman tentative in his initial reactions.

“Positive, mixed,” Rea said after day one at Phillip Island. “We had some really good feelings with the bike but some not so good that we’re trying to resolve for tomorrow. Some issues with the bumps.

“The bumps aren’t getting worse but the bike feels different compared to last year.

“Also the temperature’s a lot higher compared to last year so the grip levels are good but of course the tyres are dropping much more than in November – where there was cooler conditions, a lot of wind also – so just working through that with the crew. Will put our heads together and hopefully make a good step tonight, when we understand everything that’s going on.”

While multiple red flags for wildlife on track disputed the day’s flow, a turn four crash in the afternoon session left his Kawasaki somewhat lacking.

“Basically was a mix of things,” he explained. “I went out with a completely different wheelbase. Also a new hard front tyre that I hadn’t used yet and I was pushing hard. I set the fastest lap time of the session just before and then the next lap I went in with good power, good feeling and just overcooked it. On data was very similar, just a little bit more lean angle. One of them, you know.

“Frustrated, because I was relatively unscathed, everything was near perfect. I went with the same suit, gloves, everything but the bike not so much – I put a pretty big dent in the tank.

“Sorry for the guys for that. We went out straight away afterwards. I was quick again but just working on them key areas like I said, trying to manage them bumps a little bit better and working towards tomorrow.

“Just trying to work on the bike being a little bit more manageable, more smooth,” Rea continued on the plan of action for the final day of testing. “It’s working very well in some areas – like in T2, exit T6, the bike feels better than last year, a lot better. But just in them critical areas, sector three, I’m really suffering there. That’s a key area that we need to improve so try to do that then put some laps on the tyre. That’s going to be key to fight for the podium this weekend, to be strong at the end of the race as well. So that will be on the agenda, try and put a lot of laps on the tyres.”

With Ducati strong from second and third in Monday’s times, and Michael Rinaldi maintaining his top three position across Portimao testing, does Rea think there will be more to 2023’s title fighters than just the dominating trio of recent years?

“No idea,” the 36-year-old said, honestly. “I know I expect the two guys from last year to be right there. They’re great riders with great machines, and then it’s up to the rest to try and be there. Me included!

“Try to maximise my potential every weekend and of course, like last year, where you have other riders strong in different circuits, it’s going to be the same. Gonna be unpredictable, which is good, but hopefully I can step up and be there each weekend.”

31.01.2023 |
Christina Bulpett |
WorldSBK

WorldSBK testing got back underway at Portimao’s Algarve International Circuit on Tuesday with Aruba.it Ducati’s Michael Rinaldi topping the times in the closing minutes.

KRT’s Jonathan Rea looked to have the day in the bag before the Italian swept through thanks to a 1’39.639 on his final effort, denying the Northern Irishman by 0.061s, with the second Ducati of Alvaro Bautista a further 0.007s back in third, despite a late tipoff at turn five.

Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes had an action packed start to proceedings as both he and Honda’s Xavi Vierge brought out the red flags in the morning session due to crashes at turns 10 and 13 respectively. The pair both returning to the track as the session continued, Lowes aboard his second bike after the small off proved more destructive than expected due to limited airfencing.

Reigning champion Bautista held court with a 1’39.862, just 0.02s ahead of fellow Panigale rider Rinaldi by the halfway point of the opening day with Pata Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli and Toprak Razgatlioglu completing the top four. The pair continuing to circulate on similar pace as they concluded the day’s top five by the close of play.

Vierge regrouped to sit sixth overall, narrowly ahead of Lowes while Honda’s Iker Lecuona, GRT Yamaha’s Remy Gardner and Bonovo BMW’s Garrett Gerloff concluded the top ten.

In WorldSSP, Tarran Mackenzie took his first laps with a stock MIE Honda, before retiring for the remainder of the day ahead of a proper push on Wednesday. Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega headed the field as he had at Jerez, with 1’43.282 pace, Althea’s Federico Caricasulo and Raffaele de Rosa completed the top three, half a second behind.

WorldSBK Portimao Test – Tuesday

1 21 M. RINALDI DUCATI 1:39.639 73 1:58.985 75 291.1 1:39.335
2 65 J. REA KAWASAKI 1:39.700 53 0.061 0.061 2:01.400 61 314.0 1:39.515
3 1 A. BAUTISTA DUCATI 1:39.707 50 0.068 0.007 2:27.666 59 312.1 1:39.514
4 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU YAMAHA 1:39.851 38 0.212 0.144 1:50.725 42 310.3 1:39.730
5 55 A. LOCATELLI YAMAHA 1:39.987 12 0.348 0.071 2:02.868 57 279.1 1:39.807
6 97 X. VIERGE HONDA 1:40.053 64 0.414 0.058 1:59.691 66 293.5 1:39.878
7 22 A.LOWES KAWASAKI 1:40.264 67 0.625 0.211 1:41.107 72 285.7 1:39.766
8 7 I. LECUONA HONDA 1:40.581 45 0.942 0.164 1:50.720 47 314.9 1:40.404
9 87 R. GARDNER YAMAHA 1:40.667 50 1.028 0.086 2:47.454 64 288.8 1:40.529
10 31 G. GERLOFF BMW 1:40.698 70 1.059 0.031 1:41.126 74 291.9 1:40.363
11 76 L. BAZ BMW 1:40.737 38 1.098 0.039 1:59.434 39 305.1 1:40.560
12 45 S. REDDING BMW 1:40.749 60 1.110 0.012 1:42.044 63 300.8 1:40.749
13 5 P. OETTL DUCATI 1:40.846 43 1.207 0.097 15:45.001 60 274.1 1:40.846
14 60 M. van der MARK BMW 1:40.875 51 1.236 0.016 1:41.480 55 301.7 1:40.584
15 9 D. PETRUCCI DUCATI 1:41.321 56 1.682 0.153 2:00.433 65 311.2 1:41.176

01.02.2023 |
Christina Bulpett |
WorldSBK

Aruba.it Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista topped off European winter testing on top of the WorldSBK times as Wednesday’s action concluded at Portimao.

Bautista was back in charge almost as soon as the final day got up to speed on the Algarve. The reigning champion’s 1’39.035 record breaking effort – set on his 13th lap and before the Spaniard suffered a turn seven crash – sat over half a second faster than his teammate’s best of the previous afternoon. Both Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea and said teammate Michael Rinaldi had improved to match the leading Ducati with just a tenth separating the trio by lunch, with all three running under lap record pace.

Toprak Razgatlioglu was best of the rest in fourth, equally under the record after a handful of laps and aiming for the top three before Rinaldi denied him. The Pata Yamaha rider recording a 1’39.4 effort with fellow R1 rider Andrea Locatelli less than three tenths back.

It was a position the pair would hold till the close of play as the riders behind bickered for the remaining top ten honours. Honda’s Iker Lecuona suffered his own final sector spill before recovering to initially head teammate Xavi Vierge and second KRT man Alex Lowes before GRT Yamaha’s Remy Gardner improved to claim seventh with a 1’40.202 – four tenths up on the previous day. Tom Sykes found his mojo on his return to Kawasaki, placing the Puccetti ZX-10R in ninth, narrowly ahead of factory rider Lowes who opted not to push for a time attack as he worked through the comprehensive testing plan.

Loris Baz claimed fastest BMW honours on the Bonovo machine ahead of Michael van der Mark’s factory effort while Scott Redding faced technical issues in the morning run on his Rokit sponsored M1000RR, bringing out the red flag.

Nicolo Bulega continued the morning’s record breaking trend in WorldSSP as he set a 1’42.919 on his Aruba Panigale V2 before improving again three tenths faster as the day wound down. Althea’s Federico Caricasulo maintained his testing challenge from second with Barni’s Yari Montella completing the all-Italian and all-Ducati top three.

WorldSBK Portimao test – Wednesday

1 1 A. BAUTISTA DUCATI SBK 1 1:39.035 13 45 166.92
2 65 J. REA – 1 KAWASAKI SBK 2 1:39.044 22 0.009 0.009 68 166.91
3 21 M. RINALDI – 2 DUCATI SBK 3 1:39.144 23 0.109 0.100 45 166.74
4 54 TOPRAK – 2 YAMAHA SBK 4 1:39.441 12 0.406 0.297 46 166.24
5 55 LOCATELLI – 1 YAMAHA SBK 7 1:39.705 25 0.670 0.116 83 165.80
6 7 I. LECUONA – 2 HONDA SBK 8 1:39.803 18 0.768 0.098 42 165.64
7 87 R. GARDNER – 1 YAMAHA SBK 11 1:40.202 62 1.167 0.014 67 164.98
8 97 X. VIERGE – 2 HONDA SBK 12 1:40.237 32 1.202 0.035 91 164.92
9 6 T. SYKES – 2 KAWASAKI SBK 13 1:40.586 41 1.551 0.349 43 164.35
10 22 A. LOWES – 1 KAWASAKI SBK 14 1:40.599 27 1.564 0.013 56 164.33
11 76 L. BAZ – 1 BMW SBK 15 1:40.652 11 1.617 0.053 40 164.24
12 60 M. van der MARK – 2 BMW SBK 17 1:40.711 6 1.676 0.018 30 164.14
13 5 P. OETTL – 1 DUCATI SBK 18 1:40.789 20 1.754 0.078 67 164.02
14 31 G. GERTOFF – 1 BMW SBK 20 1:40.823 16 1.788 0.023 62 163.96
15 77 D. AEGERTER – 2 YAMAHA SBK 21 1:40.844 54 1.809 0.021 61 163.93
16 45 S. REDDING – 2 BMW SBK 24 1:41.002 4 1.967 0.048 19 163.67
17 34 L. BALDASSARRI YAMAHA SBK 25 1:41.218 46 2.183 0.216 69 163.32
18 28 B. RAY YAMAHA SBK 26 1:41.293 33 2.258 0.075 43 163.20
19 47 A. BASSANI – 1 DUCATI SBK 28 1:41.394 40 2.359 0.071 60 163.04
20 9 D. PETRUCCI – 3 DUCATI SBK 29 1:41.439 8 2.404 0.045 33 162.97

WorldSSP Portimao Test – Wednesday

36 11 N. BULEGA – 1 DUCATI SSP 1 1:42.636 10 3.601 0.128 19 161.07
40 64 F. CARICASULO DUCATI SSP 3 1:43.127 44 4.092 0.208 59 160.30
42 55 Y. MONTELLA – 2 DUCATI SSP 4 1:43.386 4 4.351 0.136 27 159.90
44 61 C. ONCU KAWASAKI SSP 5 1:43.583 45 4.548 0.044 53 159.59
46 3 R. de ROSA DUCATI SSP 6 1:43.628 33 4.593 0.003 62 159.52
47 62 S. MANZI YAMAHA SSP 7 1:43.771 46 4.736 0.143 73 159.30
50 94 V. DEBISE YAMAHA SSP 9 1:44.106 27 5.071 0.001 66 158.79
51 9 J. NAVARRO YAMAHA SSP 10 1:44.809 33 5.774 0.703 60 157.73
52 32 O. BAYLISS DUCATI SSP 11 1:44.978 38 5.943 0.169 81 157.47
54 22 F. FULIGNI DUCATI SSP 12 1:45.514 31 6.479 0.131 67 156.67
55 73 M. KOFLER DUCATI SSP 13 1:46.234 21 7.199 0.720 66 155.61

02.02.2023 |
Christina Bulpett |
WorldSBK

Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea was in a confident mood as he concluded WorldSBK testing at Portimao on Wednesday.

Just 0.009s separated him from Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista at the close of the final afternoon on the Algarve, with a similarly minute margin between the pair, and Michael Rinaldi, on day one. A positive two days on track and the new electronics setup in the KRT box added to the confident manner of the six-time Superbike champion ahead of the opening round of 2023.

“Conditions are much better here than in Jerez,” Rea commented after day one and the move across the Iberian peninsula over the last two weeks. “Better temperatures straight away, like from 1030 this morning we could start. We had some big items to test, like chassis components and one was very positive. It brought some really good feelings on the edge of the tyre entering the corner. We made a really positive step with that, the other one not so positive.

“Working with electronics, we made some really good improvements there from power delivery side, the bike feels a lot more manageable than it has done around here. Quite a busy track, especially on the gas because it’s so undulating, so that was positive. We worked all day with a base rear tyre and at the end we used the softer rear, the SCX compound and I was able to be fast enough with that.”

While the KRT squad had a raft of items to test from Kawasaki, a new electronics crew was bedding in. Christophe Lambert taking up the overseeing position of Electronics and Data Engineering Co-ordinator while Sander Donkers replaced Davide Gentile on Rea’s side of the garage.

“Good!” Rea confirmed, when asked how the change in personnel was going. “If anything just a bit slower than normal, just understanding them guys getting up to speed first with the different system. Although it’s Magneti Marelli and they have good experience, our software is quite different. It’s been designed by Kawasaki. But a really big positive is I feel the changes Sanders is making. I really feel the changes from a power point of view, negative torque, engine brake, so that’s really positive, so we can make steps. Compared to last year, improvements or feedback was small, and it’s hard to feel so maybe he just has bigger changes you know, and then I can feel it but we’ll get into a good way.

“We have more of an understanding, I would say good understanding already,” he continued at the end of day two. “Still, of course work in progress. With the new electronic influence in the garage, there should be, well, I would like to think that we’ll have some electronic updates throughout the year but basically what we’ve decided now, we will start the year with and work from there.

“From technical side and testing side, today we had some development tyres from Pirelli to test in the rear – last week in Jerez I did the front tyres, this week it was two different options of SCX I guess for the future. The track was strange shape because I was much better with hotter compound tyres here than soft, every time we put a soft tyre in, trying to make a time attack, the lap time wasn’t coming. The nature of the track and also the temperature the track, the tyre was just moving, flexing a lot. We tried, especially from a chassis point of view, we tried a couple of new items this test that influenced the bike in a really positive direction. So I feel just with that we have made a step.

“I know it’s clear that looking from the others, everyone’s fast. Especially both the factory Ducati guys have been lap-after-lap very competitive. You never really know until the lights go out but I think we’ve had a decent winter, albeit short. So quite happy with the two day’s work.”

While the size of the Algarve International Circuit meant there was little opportunity to check out his rivals in action, Rea has a handy partner in crime within the team.

“Alex [Lowes] is a good teammate because he’s competitive so you can always pick up something but this test wasn’t really that, we never really got to the really nitty gritty performance side,” he admitted. “I think from a clicker point of view, or spring rates, we’ve changed nothing. It’s just been hard test items back to backing. It’s very hard as well because sometimes you get a positive feeling with a setup change but you’re with an old tyre, then you have to recheck it with a new tyre again and so we consumed tyres, but also we have to understand if the changes we make are good with a new tyre or they’re good with an old tyre, you know, so just covering all bases.

“There’s only so much you can do, there has to be a point where you draw a line under everything and go racing. It’s a shame because what we really needed was really hot off-season testing. Would have been nice to put everything in flight boxes and go to Australia or go to South Africa or somewhere that we know it’s going to be hot. That’s the area that threw up a few curveballs for us last year.

“Phillip Island test is always the best test because it’s so easy to make a mistake now, at this time of year. You’re in cold conditions, sometimes it’s raining, Jerez last year was wet. So it’s important to arrive there healthy at least and then work from there. It’s two good days, although its split in sessions but everyone, they think about race runs there because you can’t just smash a tyre for 20 laps at Phillip Island. So it’s more about trying to find the correct setup for the track and to go racing.”

08.02.2023 |
WorldSBK Staff |
WorldSBK

Kawasaki Racing unveiled its 2023 WorldSBK team colours on Wednesday evening as it partnered up with the MXGP effort.

Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes showcased their Superbike World Championship Ninja ZX-10RR alongside Romain Febvre and Mitch Evans’ KX450-SR – as the pair line up for Kawasaki’s MXGP outfit, headed by former F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen.

With European testing done and dusted and just a fortnight to go before the opening round off the 2023 WorldSBK season kicks off at Phillip Island, in Australia, both Rea and Lowes are eager to get racing with the Northern Irishman out for his seventh title in green.

“I am really excited about this new season,” Rea admitted. “We had a really solid off season. I am also excited to go to Phillip Island and start the year in what seems to us like a more normal way.

“I feel that I have prepared really well away from the track, and during the winter tests we have improved, which is very motivating.

“It’s nice to have some new people around and that itself brings a different feel,” he continued of the off-season garage shakeup which saw new electronics staff added to the KRT fold. “I am eager to get going. We have made progress with the bike and are working hard to try to improve our feeling and results from last season. Hopefully we can challenge for race wins and fight for a world title.”

“I love how the bike looks,” Lowes commented on the latest livery. “I really like the 2023 design. Last year I had some quite good speed, strong qualifying performances and I could hang with the top three. As the race went on, when the grip dropped, I was struggling a little bit more, that is an area we have focused on.

“I am really looking forward to the year. I have had a good winter of training and I really can’t wait to get started. It may be a few years now that I have been in the Superbike World Championship, but I am still excited like it is the first time; like I felt back in 2014. Now I am looking forward to getting to Australia and getting down to business.”

26.01.2023 |
Christina Bulpett |
WorldSBK

Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu secured the standings once again at Jerez as WorldSBK testing completed its second day.

As expected, Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea and Aruba.it Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista joined him in the top three, less than two tenths shy of the Turkish rider’s 1:38.269 best, with the pair’s teammates Michael Rinaldi and Alex Lowes locking out the fastest five.

Cool morning temperatures saw a delay to proceedings as day two at Jerez eventually fired up an hour later than planned on Thursday. Bautista was the man to beat in the early stages – on the bubble of 1’39 pace – with Razgatlioglu and Rea neatly behind, while teammate Rinaldi headed fellow Ducati man Danilo Petrucci in the top five.

Razgatlioglu recovered from an early and heavy turn 13 crash to better Bautista by just 0.028s on his second R1 as the morning developed. The 2022 Champion back in charge overall on his 50th lap of the day, a 1’38.540 setting the benchmark for the afternoon runs.

The second half of the top ten was filled with improvers as Pata Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli made his way to fifth, half a second adrift of his teammate’s current best, with Petrucci, KRT’s Lowes, Bonovo BMW’s Loris Baz, GRT’s Remy Gardner and Honda’s Iker Lecuona all narrowly behind with two hours to go.

As the clock clicked down the 2021 champ had returned to command with a 1’38.269 effort, Rea just 0.083s adrift with Bautista completing the top three, less than two tenths back. Rinaldi maintained his best of the rest position in fourth as the final rider under the 1’39 barrier on the second day with Lowes leading a Yamaha pairing of Locatelli and Dominique Aegerter from fifth. Petrucci, Lecuona and Gardner completed the top ten, with the rookie 1.2s off the outright pace after 162 laps of the Andalusian track.

Aruba Ducati’s Niccolo Bulega was the fastest WorldSSP rider – on 1’41.685 pace – for the second day in a row, the Italian fending off close competition Puccetti Kawasaki’s Can Öncü and Althea’s Federico Caricasulo with John McPhee continuing to get to grips with his Vince64 Kawasaki from sixth.

1 54 WSBK Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU 61 1:38.269 — ——- 38 250,2
2 65 WSBK Jonathan REA 56 1:38.352 0.083 0.083 53 263,9
3 1 WSBK Alvaro BAUTISTA 86 1:38.449 0.180 0.097 65 267,3
4 21 WSBK Michael Ruben RINALDI 67 1:38.646 0.377 0.197 67 255,3
5 22 WSBK Alex LOWES 77 1:39.175 0.906 0.529 75 –
6 77 WSBK Dominique AEGERTER 71 1:39.193 0.924 0.018 70 262,6
7 55 WSBK Andrea LOCATELLI 69 1:39.280 1.011 0.087 51 247,3
8 9 WSBK Danilo PETRUCCI 54 1:39.311 1.042 0.031 52 255,9
9 7 WSBK Iker LECUONA 68 1:39.337 1.068 0.026 58 266,9
10 87 WSBK Remy GARDNER 76 1:39.464 1.195 0.127 70 221,2
11 76 WSBK Loris BAZ 61 1:39.517 1.248 0.053 61 244,8
12 45 WSBK Scott REDDING 67 1:39.710 1.441 0.193 62 –
13 97 WSBK Xavi VIERGE 79 1:39.860 1.591 0.150 77 238,3
14 5 WSBK Philipp OETTL 75 1:40.023 1.754 0.163 70 253,3
15 31 WSBK Garrett GERLOFF 47 1:40.101 1.832 0.078 41 258,2
16 60 WSBK Michael VD MARK 77 1:40.221 1.952 0.120 74 71,5
17 66 WSBK Tom SYKES 36 1:40.750 2.481 0.529 33 258,7
18 34 WSBK Lorenzo BALDASSARRI 65 1:40.975 2.706 0.225 29 253,5
19 121 WSBK Florian MARINO 52 1:41.553 3.284 0.578 38 258,5
20 52 WSBK Oliver KÖNIG 62 1:41.595 3.326 0.042 18 254,1
21 11 WSSP Niccolo BULEGA 69 1:41.685 3.416 0.090 24 234,9
22 61 WSSP Can ONCU 72 1:41.858 3.589 0.173 46 218,2
23 64 WSSP Federico CARICASULO 68 1:42.012 3.743 0.154 58 235,6
24 40 SBK Roman RAMOS 54 1:42.087 3.818 0.075 41 252,7
25 99 WSSP Adrian HUERTAS 39 1:42.923 4.654 0.836 12 131,6
26 122 STK Sam LOWES 59 1:43.062 4.793 0.139 49 235,3
27 19 WSSP Andrea MANTOVANI 88 1:43.149 4.880 0.087 27 215,3
28 27 WSSP John MCPHEE 65 1:43.665 5.396 0.516 62 231,5
29 131 Roberto GARCIA 27 1:44.574 6.305 0.909 14 250,7
30 16 WSSP Yuta OKAYA 13 1:46.225 7.956 1.651 5 224,2
31 44 David MUÑOZ 34 1:47.138 8.869 0.913 6 248,8
32 222 Ana CARRASCO 42 1:48.906 10.637 1.768 42 213,5

31.01.2023 |
WorldSBK Staff |
WorldSBK

While the rider market is set ahead of the 2023 WorldSBK season opener, staff musical chairs have continued at Yamaha and KRT.

Electronics Engineer Davide Gentile has returned to Yamaha, to partner Toprak Razgatlioglu and Phil Marron, after working alongside Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea for the past few seasons, with Sander Donkers replacing the outgoing Italian for the coming year.

Heading in the opposing direction, Christophe Lambert leaves the Pata squad in favour of the newly created Electronics and Data Engineering Co-ordinator position at the Barcelona-based team. The move sees the Frenchman renew a previous working relationship with Alex Lowes, as he looks to “oversee an overall expansion of the team’s efforts in terms of electronics, with the sole aim of improving on-track performance during race weekends.”

“After analysing areas in KRT workflow that we could enhance we detected the need to introduce a new role to support the technical staff more and to extract the maximum from the electronics system,” KRT Team Manager Guim Roda explained. “At the same time, we need to evaluate the quantity of data we generate on race weekend much faster.

“In the past, we have realised where we could have been better a few days after the race – which is inefficient. This new staff situation allows us to better analyse all the information we create to react fast in real time during the race weekend.

“We found in Christophe good experience and potential and we are quite sure we gonna make another step to improve our performance with him onboard. Additionally, Davide Gentile the Electronics Engineer for Jonathan has decided to look for new goals and we wish him well and thank him for his contribution to the project. For this important role we searched in many places and finally we decided on Sander as the best candidate to work with Pere [Riba] and Johnny.

“Additionally, we have taken the opportunity to reorganise some roles and responsibilities within KRT, adjusting concept ideas to the reality of racing and we will reinforce the Test Team area with Florian Marino helping us to use best our track time. We are all highly motivated for 2023 season and for sure we’ll do our best to keep improving, keep innovating and never give up.”

24.01.2023 |
Christina Bulpett |
WorldSBK

Kawasaki Racing’s Jonathan Rea is raring to get back to business as the first of two WorldSBK tests heads for Jerez this week.

Two days at the Andalucian circuit on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th January, before the paddock journeys west to Portimao the following week, will allow the six-time champion to reassess decisions made in December. The track time also provides the opportunity to gel with his amended crew set up ahead of the long-haul flight to Phillip Island in a month’s time.

“I am excited to get back on the bike again because in the December test, to be honest, my motivation wasn’t very high, coming straight after the last round of the previous season,” Rea admitted ahead of travelling to Spain. “At that test there were some definitive parts that we had to make decisions on, so that we could be supplied with them this season. The guys have now had time to think about it all and everybody is re-motivated.

“We have some new staff in the garage as well for 2023. So I am looking forward to getting stuck in once we get to Jerez. Of course, in January it can be a bit hit-and-miss with the weather, but we are praying for some dry weather to keep working with the Ninja ZX-10RR.”