After Alvaro Bautista’s (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) MotoGP™ test at Misano, more 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship stars will take to testing action, albeit on their regular machinery. This time, it’s the turn of the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK and riders Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes, as they seek improvements in hot conditions once more, one of the ZX-10RR’s weak spots. However, team manager Guim Roda enlightened us with the test being an ideal opportunity to “check possible items for 2024”, with the hard work already well underway in order to get back to winning ways.
With 2023’s title challenge somewhat ‘unrealistic’ and that fighting for the podium and top five is, in Jonathan Rea’s words, “their reality”, preparations for next year are underway and trying to salvage 2023 and return to victory is a target, as Roda explains: “This MotorLand test is planned to check possible items to use in the 2024 season as well as trying set-up solutions for the coming races.
“Trying to improve our bike according to the limitations inside the rules, we could not find the package we wished to, and now we need to reconsider how to work for the next Championship rounds. Our target is Honda, Yamaha, BMW. It is a matter of rule limitations that do not allow us to maximise the potential of our ZX-10RR, but it is what it is.”
Currently fourth in the Championship and closing down third-placed Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK), Jonathan Rea shared his thoughts ahead of the test: “This test comes at a great time because we have made no secret that we really need to make a step with our bike. Added track time with good conditions is always important for us. We will try some ideas from a chassis point of view and also how we can improve for the future.
“From another point of view, with the big break from Misano to Donington Park, it is always good to ride the bike to keep the rhythm. We expect favourable conditions and it is an important to test to understand the direction we will take in the future. Misano was a tough weekend, in finishing so far from the race winner, so we need to work hard. Big respect to the team for getting another mid-season test in. Hopefully we can draw some conclusions and find a way forward.”
As for the #22 of Alex Lowes, the Englishman has been at recent MotoGP™ events in support of his brother, Sam, and is now back on WorldSBK machinery and ready to tackle the high track temperatures that he and the team have wished for throughout testing: “I’m looking forward to the test and I always find that ‘in-season’ tests, with hot temperatures, to be a lot more valuable than winter testing in cooler conditions. With a busy month coming up in July, featuring three race weekends, we want to try and improve our base package.
“We will work on that on Friday at Aragon. We are still looking at improving the front end of the bike, especially in hotter conditions, to not have a drop in performance when the track gets more slippy or the temperatures rise a lot. It looks like the track temperatures are going to get high, so that is what we are focusing on, hoping to make a couple of nice improvements to be ready for the home round at Donington.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com