The Australian Circuit Phillip Island host this weekend the beginning of World Superbike 2024 where the Spanish pilot Alvaro Bautista putting his world crown on the line for the second year in a row. The first defense was successful, in 36 races he achieved 31 podiums, 27 of which were victories. But facing 2024, many fields have opened up, starting with the change in the regulations to impose a minimum weight and which forced him to balance his Panigale V4R at seven kilograms, which changes the way it drives, and to that is added a neck injury. due to a nasty fall in a test at Jerez that made his preseason atypical.
Its main rivals have also sought their own solutions to try to deal with it. The Turk Toprak Razgatlioglu He swapped the Yamaha for the BMW and was just the reference in the pre-race test at Phillip Island, which was also below the circuit record. “Winning is my dream… But when I think about it too much, it doesn’t come true,” he points out.
He rode his motorcycle Johnny Rea after putting aside his successful time at Kawasaki where he won his six consecutive world titles, he pushed hard at Phillip Island looking for the R1 limit. “I’ve been fast, but I still need the feeling to be very fast. Follow through the track, we’re getting there.”
Baptist he is going to have enemies at home in the figure of the novice Nicolo Bulega, SSP world champion and who impressed this preseason for his quick adaptation to the official team’s Panigale. “I have adapted to this bigger bike, but nothing special, I just wanted to ride to understand it better. Álvaro is not very fast in a lap, but if you see the speed of his race, it is always very good. I think he will be first. No, I have goals, I just want to enjoy riding this bike and be first if possible,” said the young Italian.
The 2024 SBK calendar
February 23-25 Australia round (Phillip Island)
March 22-24 Catalunya round (Barcelona-Catalunya)
April 19-21 Netherlands round (Assen)
June 14-16 Emilia-Romagna round (Misano)
12-14 July UK round (Donington Park)
July 19-21 round Czech Rep. (Most)
August 9-11 Portugal round (Portimao)
August 23-25 Hungary round (Balaton Park)
September 6-8 France round (Magny-Cours)
20-22 September Italy round (Cremona)
September 27-29 Aragon round (Motorland)
October 18-20 Spain round (Jerez)
The rider from Talavera de la Reina adopted a low profile throughout the pre-campaign as he explained after the official test: “I spent almost the whole preseason recovering my neck and, in the tests, I didn’t work very well with bike. For him At the beginning of the season, I don’t think I’m one of the favorites for victory because I have to make up a lot of ground, like the sensations on the bike, and I’m still a bit far from my best performance. . Let’s see if I can close the gap step by step with the best Bautista and fight for good positions. Right now, I don’t have the confidence or security to lead the first round.”
There will be four Spanish riders in the SBK World Championship. In addition to the world champion Álvaro Bautista, in Team HRC, showing a new homologated motorcycle and many improvements, Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge and Tito Rabat repeat, after making several changes in recent years have obtained he official place on the grid in the Kawasaki Pucetti.
Two of the novelties of the championship will be the debut of Andrea Iannone after being ‘kicked out’ for doping from MotoGP and looking for a new opportunity with a privateer Ducati in the SBK World Championship and the former Moto2 World Championship rider Sam Lowes which lands covered by the Marc VDS Racing Team structure and on a Ducati. The Lowes twins meet in the same championship, Alex as the head of the Kawasaki Racing Team and Sam as a debutant.
The 2024 grid
Kawasaki Racing Team: Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani
Aruba.it Racing Ducati: Álvaro Bautista and Nicolò Bulega
ROKiT BMW Motorrad: Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark
Yamaha Prometeon Pata: Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea
Team HRC: Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge
Bonovo Action BMW: Garrett Gerloff and Scott Redding
GYTR GRT Yamaha: Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner
Marc VDS Ducati: Sam Lowes
Barni Spark Racing Ducati: Danilo Petrucci
Team GoEleven Ducati: Andrea Iannone
Motocorsa Racing Ducati: Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Petronas MIE Honda: Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin
GMT94 Yamaha: Philipp Oettl
Yamaha Motoxracing: Bradley Ray
Kawasaki Puccetti Racing: Tito Rabat
Mandatory pit-stop at Phillip Island
The 2024 World Cup starts in Phillip Island and there is good news. Based on the information gathered after the WorldSBK and WorldSSP tests at Phillip Island, it was decided that, to ensure the safety of the riders, the rear tires cannot be used for more than 11 laps for the WorldSBK category and 10 laps for the WorldSSP so it will be mandatory to make a pit-stop. The race distance for WorldSBK Races 1 and 2 was reduced to 20 laps and two extra sets of tires were allocated for each driver in both categories. WorldSSP Races 1 and 2 remain at 18 laps.
Australia’s rotation schedules
Spanish period
Friday the 23rd
00:25-01:05 WorldSSP free training
01:20-02:05 Free Practice 1 WorldSBK
04:55-05:35 WorldSSP Superpole
06:00-06:45 Free Practice 2 WorldSBK
Saturday the 24th
00:00-00:20 Free Practice 3 WorldSBK
00:30-00:40 Warm Up 1 WorldSSP
03:00-03.15 WorldSBK Superpole
04:30 Race 1 WorldSSP
06:00 Race 1 WorldSBK
Sunday 25
00:30-00:40 Warm Up WorldSBK
00:50-01:00 Warm Up 2 WorldSSP
03:00 WorldSBK Superpole Race
04:30 Race 2 WorldSSP
06:00 Race 2 WorldSBK
*Spanish viewers can follow the action on DAZN, Teledeporte and Eurosport
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
