WorldSBK Testing
Misano – May 2023
Much of the World Superbike paddock were out on track at Misano this week for a two-day test with a view to the upcoming Emilia Romagna WorldSBK round, set to play out at the same Misano circuit on 2-4 June.
The work schedule of the various teams was conditioned to a fair extent by the weather, with rainfall interrupting proceedings on both days. Having said that, Thursday morning and early afternoon brought the best conditions, with the track having fully dried following overnight rain.
Work progressed on Friday through ever-changing conditions, where many riders evaluated wet settings and electronic strategies before they return to race in three weeks’ time.
Notable absentees from the test were KRT riders Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes. Each full-time rider in WorldSBK is allowed no more than ten days of in-season testing, with this period starting one day after the previous season’s final round and ending on the final day of the current season. KRT chose to save some of these days for warmer conditions. Instead, KRT left the role of evaluating electronic strategies to Florian Marino at Misano while the full team will test at Jerez next week.
Guim Roda – KRT Team Manager
“Testing is so important, especially when things do not work out as planned, and especially because we don’t give up. In 2019 Alvaro Bautista won at the first four rounds, but we won the title. Of course we are in a worse position than 2019, we are not naive, but the concept is to never give up until game is over. Not winning empowers us to work really hard to come back stronger. We need to explore all the areas to find the way to fight to win every race. That’s the target. We could not finish some upgrades we were working on with the bike, so we will try to find other options to test before Misano. We are especially trying to find more than 45º tarmac conditions to test on. We organised a small team to come with Florian to check some functional steps in electronics. This Misano test still very important for KRT, even we do not come with all our weapons this time. The test has been quite good regarding some targets we were aiming for. The track temperature was not enough to work with items we wanted to work on with Alex and Johnny, but checking the functionality of some software adjustments has been very useful. We tried some other items with the set up to understand the reactions of the bike. We also made some mileage control with sensors and other things. Congratulations to Florian for his hard work, and we are now returning home to test at Jerez on the 18th, to test with all the team.”
Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista set a new circuit record of 1m33.035 on an SCQ tyre on the opening day before using day two to gain data on wets before the track dried later in the afternoon.
Alvaro Bautista
“On the first day, we did a really good job. Fortunately, the weather allowed us to ride in dry conditions. We worked on the setup without introducing any new solutions and I immediately found a good feeling. The fastest lap? Pirelli asked us to try the SCQ, which we don’t usually try often in testing. I was surprised by the durability of the tire as I managed to set the time on lap four. Today we also took advantage of the rain to collect data in the wet. We are ready for Misano, whatever the conditions”.
Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlıoğlu posted the second-quickest time of the test but the focus for the Turk’s crew was on race pace simulation and evaluating new parts from Yamaha’s European R&D facility in Milan.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu
“I’m very happy – yesterday finished second position and did a very good lap time, but the race simulation was unbelievable! Today, I just tried the Yamaha test bike and some new parts for improving the bike. We tried for good set-up, it’s new, but not nice weather today. In the morning I ride in the wet conditions and it was good, we are really fast. After, we are just waiting for the dry conditions. I kept my base set-up like yesterday’s bike, but just today try new parts and the test bike. We did a very good job here, after Catalunya I am riding the bike 100 per cent – no need to save the tyre. It looks like the potential is very high, because the testing is very good, and I hope we are fighting for the win at Misano race.”
Team-mate Andrea Locatelli also had the opportunity to test new items, including the fifth “test bike” supplied by Yamaha’s engineers, but struggled slightly on Thursday to find the right feeling with the increased surface grip compared to the race in Barcelona last weekend.
Andrea Locatelli
“Two days of testing in Misano was also a good opportunity to try the bike here after Barcelona race. This track is a bit different in respect to the other tracks, because I have a lot of grip – so we work to find a solution to remove a bit of chattering and the problem we had in Race 2 in Barcelona. Generally, we were a bit unlucky with the weather because yesterday and also today we needed to wait for the track to dry and also this morning it rained again, but fortunately in the afternoon today we could do many laps. I am more happy compared to yesterday, we need to improve a little bit more and we will see during the race weekend what we can do. I hope the weather will be a little bit better! It was good to ride these two days, even if the rain didn’t help. We look for a way to arrive back here in Misano ready for the race and to try to fight for a good position – I think if we can put all the things together, we can have a good weekend.”
The GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team were present with Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner.
Dominique Aegerter
“It’s always nice to be testing, especially here in Misano where we’ll race in a few weeks. The conditions and the circuit are very different from Barcelona, so it was cool to test in a different scenario. We enjoyed a bit of dry asphalt and we tried to improve our feelings, plus we were able to ride on wet tarmac too to gain more data. It’s time to recharge our batteries now and get ready for the next round.”
Remy Gardner
“We had two good days here in Misano, luckily we managed to enjoy some dry track time and we found something positive for the next rounds. Unfortunately, we missed a bit of track time due to rain, but we eventually got the chance to ride on damp asphalt which could be helpful for the future as well. Now let’s head to the next races, starting with Misano where we’re confident we can have a good weekend.”
Lorenzo Baldassarri (GMT94 Yamaha) enjoyed a strong test on home soil at Misano.
HRC were present with Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona.
Xavi Vierge
“On Thursday the weather wasn’t as bad as expected luckily. We found good feeling in the end, but it was a tricky first day. We struggled a little more than expected early on, without really understanding why. But after making some changes to the bike for the afternoon session, things went better and my feeling improved, particularly once we tested a new swingarm. I made many laps with a new set of tyres and was able to regain strong feeling, so I was pleased with that. On day two, we were not as lucky as Thursday with the weather because we were only able to complete a few laps in the dry early on before the rain started. In the afternoon we had a little more dry track time and could compare swingarm’s specs. We didn’t have chance to make many laps, but we were able to collect solid data for the engineers to analyse. I feel the work’s been constructive, especially in terms of the items we tested yesterday, so now we have two more weeks to work on the data we’ve collected and then we will see when we come back here to Misano in just over two weeks’ time.”
Iker Lecuona
“It has been a challenging test for us, to be honest, and I struggled to set any really fast times. Thursday was not easy, as we also spent quite a lot of time in the garage making changes to the bike. We tested a new swingarm, but I’m not sure yet whether it’s better or not – we need more time to understand this – and on Friday the weather didn’t help, forcing us to stop even earlier than yesterday. But we’ve worked hard, also trying some set-ups in wet conditions, and now have a lot more data to analyse before coming back here for the races.”
Garrett Gerloff was the quickest BMW rider at the test.
Garrett Gerloff
“I wasn’t really expecting to have so many dry laps, so that’s positive, for sure. Yesterday was really good, we made a lot of progress. We tried just small things but all the small things add up. We ended the day in a good position and I was happy with that. Today, we did not go out before the rain so we did not have any dry laps in the morning. In the afternoon just the grip did not feel so great but anyway, we were happy with how the test went, especially yesterday. We have a lot of information for the race coming up soon, so I am looking forward to that.”
Scott Redding
“In the dry, track conditions were really good. We tested some parts which gave me a better feeling on the bike which I am quite happy with. I feel I can push the bike a little bit more which is what I am looking for. But still I struggle to achieve a better lap time when I push for it. But here in those track conditions, the consistency was really good and I was fast with many laps on the tyre, but I could not make a step with a new tyre. That is something that we need to work on. Even if rain interrupted things a bit, it was good to have two days of testing here and try to improve.”
Tom Sykes used the opportunity to familiarise himself with the ROKiT BMW after recently parting ways with Puccetti Kawasaki and set a time quicker than Scott Redding.
Tom Sykes
“I’m very grateful for getting this opportunity and to be here. I know the team very well from the past, but obviously I am on the other side of the garage now, so the first thing we did was setting up a plan for our work. I was very happy with the way things went. Run by run, we tried more to understand the package and to get myself comfortable again with the BMW. Honestly, I was very happy with the progress we kept making. Day two was interrupted with rain so we did some wet and function testing to get forward. Credit to BMW and the entire team; since I was last riding the bike, they have continued to move forward and made big steps with the bike, for example regarding the engine and electronics. Overall it has been a very productive test and I am looking forward to the upcoming event at Misano.”
Loris Baz continues to struggle with recent leg injuries.
Loris Baz
“The focus at this test was to be back a bit more natural on the bike, especially with my leg. The couple of races that I have contested since I came back, I was of course not riding naturally. It is still not perfect, and the foot was more painful at Misano than it was at Barcelona due to all the changes of direction so we have not done too many laps but focused on trying to get back a feeling with the front and a better turning of the bike again. There we were struggling more this season compared to last year. I think that we made a good step in that direction. We have also been a bit lucky with the weather as two days of rain had been predicted and we still had good laps on the dry. I did most of the test with the SC0, my best lap time was with really old tyres. So the test was pretty okay. Now I am looking forward to three more weeks of recovery for my leg because it is still locking me in the right–hand corners and changes of direction.”
With both Petronas MIE Racing Honda currently recuperating after crashes at Catalunya, Midori Moriwaki’s team fielded Supersport rider Tarran Mackenzie during this test. Mackenzie spent the first session getting to grips with the CBR1000RR-R for the first time.
Tarran Mackenzie
“Yesterday was exciting as I was riding the CBR1000RR-R for the first time. I hadn’t been to this track for six years either, so it wasn’t easy of course, and riding a different bike meant there was a lot for me to take in and understand but as the day went on, we continued to improve. We made some changes for today, to try and improve my feeling and make me more comfortable, and things went a little better overall I’d say. The weather wasn’t great, but I felt quite good in the rain this morning. I think I perhaps improved a little, but I’d definitely need more time to understand everything. I’m happy to have tested here though and have learned a lot over the two days.”
WorldSBK Testing May Misano
- Alvaro Bautista 1m33.035
- Toprak Razgatlioglu 1m33.545
- Michael Rinaldi 1m33.708
- Xavi Vierge 1m34.043
- Garrett Gerloff 1m34.345
- Axel Bassani 1m34.385
- Tom Sykes 1m34.416
- Andrea Locatelli 1m34.460
- Iker Lecuona 1m34.602
- Scott Redding 1m34.637
- Lorenzo Baldassarri 1m34.681
- Philipp Oettl 1m34.729
- Dominique Aegerter 1m34.807
- Remy Gardner 1m34.853
- Loris Baz 1m35.253
- Lucas Mahias 1m35.426
- Florian Marino 1m35.668
- Tarran Mackenzie 1m37.101
