After the brilliant blow made on the transfer market with the takeover made against Yamaha in the person of Toprak Razgatlioglu, BMW returned to the track at Mugello to be confronted with its poor technical and sporting reality. Apart from the satellite rider Garrett Gerloff, who did what he could to keep the brand in the top 10, the showdown was on the agenda for the German brand which was operating in a different space-time than Alvaro's stratospheric Ducati. Bautista. The gap between the M1000RR and the Panigale V4R was so big upon arrival that it could only draw the attention of Bavarian officials to the credibility of their project. Toprak Razgatlioglu will definitely have work to do. He wanted to take on a major challenge. He will be served.
While waiting for his arrival, it is Scott Redding who leads the Munich boat and his appearance in Mugello had nothing to envy of that of a Honda driver, apart from Marc Marquez, in MotoGP. The 2020 world vice-champion on Ducati and 12-time winner in WSBK had his head down when he commented on his performance before leaving Mugello: “ we no longer had the necessary rhythm. In the race, we were always two or three tenths of a second slower than the second group ».
Scott Redding: “ over the weekend everyone went faster, with the BMW I slowed down »
He adds on speedweek : " we tried to get a good start and hold on as long as possible. But it was difficult even in the first laps. Over the weekend everyone went faster, I slowed down. I had problems with the engine brake. We checked the data, there were irregularities with the engine braking which did not help me turn into the corner and prepare for the exit because the bike was pushing towards the outside all the time. It's difficult for us at the moment ».
In the stands, the boss in office Marc Bongers could only observe the damage: “ the gap with the leading Ducati is incredible. Arriving 30 seconds behind the winner is not what we expected and what we are aiming for. This once again shows that starting position is extremely important to the race. Some of our drivers had a similar pace to the drivers in places 4, 5 and 6. But we were hit hard by the red flag at Superpole, although others had the same thing. This determines the rest of the weekend ».
He finishes : " We continue to work and focus on Donington Park, a track where we have performed consistently well in recent years. We hope that we can at least get back into the top 5 over there ". It's going to be a long season BMW.
