Alvaro Bautista closed the second day of testing at the Jerez circuit with the seventh fastest time. During the second day, the two-time world champion tested the 2024 regulatory innovations on his Ducati, including ballast to increase the combined weight of the bike and rider. Cause and effect or not, the now double World Champion in the specialty reserved for motorcycles from the series finished the day in seventh place after setting a best lap in 1'39.362. This was 1,5s slower than the best time of Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), who completed 58 laps…
It is therefore not as a leader, far from it, that the official in Panigale V4R left Jerez after the first two days of testing which inaugurated the 2024 offseason of WSBK. He explains his accomplished work thus: “ we focused on the 2024 regulations, particularly on weight. We have tried many solutions with weight. I made certain areas of the bike heavier, I also tested the inside of the engine and did many tests to understand how the bike works ».
Assessment? “ It's not easy because when the bike rides well, if we add 7kg, the bike gives a different feeling especially in fast turns. We did a bit of mass distribution to get more data and we got it for this winter to try to work and see what the baseline could be to start 2024 ».
Alvaro Bautista and the extra weight: “ I didn't feel any difference in acceleration. »
He specifies : " I didn't feel any difference in acceleration, I think it's more the inertia in fast corners. Especially here in Jerez, in the fast sector I felt it was more difficult. But when accelerating, there isn't a big difference. Even when braking, there may be more inertia to stop the bike but, as far as I'm concerned, I had more difficulty in fast turns ».
« For the time being, there are no updates from Ducati. We focus on this. Now they have a lot of data and they have to analyze and play with the settings of the bike. We didn't touch anything on the bike, we just put weight and changed the area where we put the weight. Now we need to start thinking about settings to get a better feeling with the bike » concludes the Spaniard who will be in the MotoGP Grand Prix of Malaysia in less than ten days as a wild card on a factory GP23…
