2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship
Round One – Phillip Island
Alvaro Bautista
Q: How do you feel about the weekend?
Alvaro Bautista: “We can say it has been a perfect weekend, three races, but three very different races, I’m happy because I felt good in each one, and I can be competitive in each one, so yea I’m really happy.”
Q: What makes you so strong on this particular track?
Bautista: “I don’t know, maybe I like fast corners, so this track only has two slow corners that aren’t fast, so maybe for that.
“But this season, if you see the winter tests, I was quite fast in all the tracks, so I don’t think it’s only in this track, I think I make a step forward because I know the bike better, I know the tyre, with this bike, and the new bike gave me a little bit more of an easy ride, exit from the corners, that combination of everything. I think we did a step forward from last year.
“We’ll see on another track, at the moment the tracks I’ve rode are Jerez, Portimao and here, I was quite fast, quite competitive. So I look forward for Misano, because last season, not that I struggled, but I didn’t feel that I could fight for the victories. So I look forward to going there, and see how I feel.”
Q: Last year you said the weakness of the Ducati was mid-corner speed?
Bautista: “The good thing is that with this new engine character, its allowed me to be a bit more slower in the mid corner so I don’t need more corner speed, because when I open the gas, it’s easier exiting from the corner. So we didn’t improve the weak point, but on the other side, we improved a little bit the exit, so that allowed me to not need the corner speed and turn the bike more with the brakes.”
Q: Your already 30 points in front of Jonny and 40 in front of Toprak…
Bautista: “Well this weekend I was lucky, because I was quite competitive, and for me it’s like last season, it’s important to just try to get the maximum every race, every weekend.
“Here, I think we were a bit better than them, so we got the maximum, then they did some – not mistakes – but Toprak crashed because of another rider I think, I didn’t see the image, but I think. Also Jonathan this morning had trouble with another rider, and Andrea I don’t know what happened to him. We maximised the weekend, so we got the maximum.
“I don’t think that this season will be between we three, because there are more riders like Locatelli, they will be in the fight for the podium – for the victory – so this season if you don’t have a good day, you will have more riders in between. It’s not like last season, one-two-three, three-two-one, two-one-three, and all the rest behind that. I think it’s different, so you have to even be more precise, more focused and try to make least mistakes.”
Q: Any part of the bike you would like to improve more?
Bautista: “Well for sure, I would like to improve stability exiting from the corner, because the bike moves a lot. It’s not easy to put load on the bike, and also on the change of direction, because I have to move too much on the bike, then the bike is up in the change of direction, because I’ll small and have to move, maybe more, with my body. But it is difficult to resolve that problem, because it’s the combination.
“We try in the winter test and also here to try to make the bike more calm. Maybe you lose a bit of turning, or a bit of grip, at the end you have to find the best combination possible.”
Q: Before the start of the weekend, did you expect this?
Bautista: “No, especially yesterday with the rain, I expected nothing, but at the end I won. Today maybe in Race 2 I knew that I was quite consistent on my pace and especially in the last lap, I can manage the tyre consumption. I had more chance to fight for the win in the long race, in the Superpole race I expect everyone was on soft and I saw that many riders can go fast, for a few laps, with the soft tyre, but then races are races. It’s what they say, when you test is one thing, but in the races it’s another thing. Not that I didn’t expect to win three races, I just didn’t have expectation. I just got here and did the maximum.”
Q: What about taking the Superbike to Imola?
Bautista: “I raced in 2019, but Sicily for me is a bit on the limit of the dangers, because the wall is very close, so you don’t have too much run out area in many places, so for me, it’s very dangerous track. The layout, you have to do a lap, work with the bike, you can go fast, or less fast, but for me, if they can improve their safety it would be much better. But to have the wall so close to the track, for me *ooof* for that reason I prefer to not race there. If we race there, we have to and I hope nothing happens.”
World Superbike Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Alvaro Bautista | 62 |
| 2 | Andrea Locatelli | 34 |
| 3 | Jonathan Rea | 31 |
| 4 | Michael Ruben Rinaldi | 31 |
| 5 | Axel Bassani | 25 |
| 6 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | 23 |
| 7 | Iker Lecuona | 22 |
| 8 | Philipp Oettl | 20 |
| 9 | Danilo Petrucci | 15 |
| 10 | Xavi Vierge | 14 |
| 11 | Dominique Aegerter | 12 |
| 12 | Scott Redding | 10 |
| 13 | Remy Gardner | 10 |
| 14 | Garrett Gerloff | 8 |
| 15 | Alex Lowes | 6 |
| 16 | Michael Van Der Mark | 4 |
| 17 | Loris Baz | 1 |
| 18 | Hafizh Syahrin | 1 |
