The World Superbike tests that ended yesterday in Barcelona featured a presence that didn’t go unnoticed – Marco Melandri. Despite having a career as a rider with manufacturers like Ducati or Yamaha, but also Kawasaki whose team was now alongside – more specifically with Axel Bassani.
The former rider spoke about this partnership in statements to the website SPEEDWEEK.com: ‘I’m trying to help Axel in every way. I look at how he rides on track, but also how he works with the team. He is young and the step from a private team to a factory team is big. Axel asked me in the winter if I could work with him, but I don’t want to travel anymore. After Phillip Island, he called me again, the test here was a good opportunity to try. The tests are more relaxed, so I had time to get to know him‘.
Melandri already knew some of the current members of Kawasaki and took advantage of the test to check the communication within the garage and the technical aspect, trying to ‘translate the comments’ from Bassani to his chief mechanic, Marcel Duinker. Despite this presence in Barcelona, the Italian has no plans to be regularly by Bassani’s side: ‘It may be possible for me to be at some races. I don’t have a plan. I love this championship, but I don’t want to travel anymore. I’m tired after 22 years’
