Weight is a recurring theme in the World Superbike Championship, especially because the dominant rider of the moment – Álvaro Bautista – is one of the lightest in the field. For 2024, there are new regulations that determine a minimum weight for the bike and rider combined.
Guim Roda, team manager of Kawasaki, explained to the website Motosan.es the impact of weight on performance: ‘How weight affects not only the performance of the bike, but also tire wear. This will give you the power to increase or decrease the performance of the bike and we are seeing that in many race situations with high temperatures and low grip on the track, being able to use the tire grip well makes a difference‘.
About Bautista in concrete, the engineer emphasized that the Spaniard has a considerable advantage, especially in long races: ‘Álvaro Bautista, with his limited weight, is having an advantage that is impossible to reach, to respond. Although in the Superpole we are there, in the Superpole race we are one second behind on the tenth lap, there is a fight. And in the long race is where the difference is recognized because it depends on the weight and grip you have on the tire, because you don’t wear out as much. It doesn’t matter if you are small or not, it has to do with the type of tire, if it is Pirelli or Michelin‘.
