This year, the Superbike World Championship has created a new minimum weight rule for the bike and rider combination. The goal is to level out riders of different heights, a measure that several riders requested and is already used in other categories.
The lightest in the current field is Álvaro Bautista, who dominated the last two seasons with Aruba.it Ducati. And he is not happy with the new regulations. The Spanish rider mentioned that the Panigale V4 R is already a more difficult bike to ride by nature: ‘I am small and light, so it is not easy for me to ride this type of bike. For me, it is easier to ride a MotoGP because I have more control. On its own, this bike is more difficult and when you add 6kg or 7kg more because you have been tuning the bike in the last two years like we did, but now with more kilograms, it is harder to ride’.
In an interview with Crash.net, Bautista emphasized that with more weight, more space will be needed to brake and even questioned the fairness of the 2024 regulations: ‘I think the rule is not fair. I already struggle a lot with this type of bikes, but everyone accepts it, except me. It is not fair to add more weight. Ultimately, the rule is not made for me, but for the championship, but I am the only rider who has to add weight to the bike. I am the only rider penalized by this rule. And for me, it is not fair that if Ducati and I work hard and achieve good performance, it is fair to penalize the good work. I understand that they want to make a very competitive championship, but I believe it is better to help other manufacturers or riders as they did in MotoGP with some concessions – but to improve their level, not to penalize our performance’.
