Two more days of World Superbike Championship pre-season testing wrapped up yesterday in Portimão, and Álvaro Bautista seems concerned. Now, only two test days remain in Phillip Island before the season officially begins.
With weather conditions disrupting riders and teams in Jerez and Portimão over the past weeks, the Aruba.it Ducati rider is feeling somewhat uneasy at this stage.
Bautista told the championship’s official website that he didn’t have the chance to work optimally, either due to strong winds or rain:
– It’s been very short and poor because we didn’t spend time on track with good conditions. At Jerez, we had one day with strong wind that was difficult for the first day after three months. The confidence with the bike wasn’t the best. The second day was raining, so we got no laps on track. Here at Portimao, it was basically the same. The first day was wet in the morning and in the afternoon, the track had some wet patches and stronger wind than Jerez; so not the best conditions to see something. On Wednesday, with the rain again. We’ve not had a good pre-season, the same as everybody.
The Spaniard didn’t hide the fact that he lacks confidence in the Panigale V4 R and is hoping to make the most of the Phillip Island tests: ‘I hope to use the two-day test before the race in Australia better and start to get some confidence. We made some tests with the bike, but we didn’t spend a lot of time in any one of the setups, so I don’t have good confidence with the bike, so I hope to build that in Australia and try to prepare well for the weekend’.