The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship heads to Donington Park this weekend as the 2023 season bursts back into action. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) heads into the Prosecco DOC UK Round as the Championship leader and with history on the horizon but the British circuit is not one where Ducati have enjoyed too much success in recent years. Their last victory was in 2011 when Carlos Checa won Race 2, while their last pole position was in 2014.
The 38-year-old can match or break two incredible records at Donington. He is currently on a run of 10 consecutive wins and victory in Race 1 means he would equal the longest streak in WorldSBK history, held by himself and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) with 11, while a win in Race 1 and the Tissot Superpole Race would break the record. The Spaniard has also won 14 races this season and a hat-trick, his fourth consecutive one, would mean he equals the record for wins in a season (17) with half the season to go.
Despite being on the verge of adding his name to more Ducati history, Bautista will know Donington has been difficult for the Italian manufacturer in recent years. They haven’t stood on the top step of the podium since Checa in 2011 and haven’t claimed a pole position since 2014 when Davide Giugliano took pole. Although they haven’t had pole in nearly a decade at Donington, the Bologna-based manufacturer do hold the record for most poles at the circuit and the Spaniard was able to finish second in 2022 despite it not being the happiest hunting ground for Ducati; that result was his best at the historic venue in WorldSBK.
In 2022, Bautista was the highest-placed Ducati rider as he took second in Race 2 while teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s best finish was fourth. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) claimed top spot for Ducati’s Independent riders with fifth in Race 1 while Philipp Oettl (Team GoEleven) and Luca Bernardi, then racing for the Barni Spark Racing Team, were both outside the top ten throughout all three races.
Discussing his chances of victory at the classic British circuit, Bautista said: “Donington has always been our weak point in the Championship. The track has been resurfaced so we have to go there and understand the track conditions. The target is to try to get the same feeling I’ve had during the whole season because I feel really good on my Panigale V4 R. This is the target and I know if I can get the feeling with the track as well, we can be competitive. There’s no target. Every year is different, and we’ll go there just to do our best.”
What makes Donington such a tricky circuit for Ducati? The circuit had been bumpy in the past which can add an extra challenge to racing there but it recently underwent a massive resurfacing programme and how this impacts the bumpy nature of the circuit will be revealed this weekend. There also aren’t any long straights with the start/finish straight measuring 550 metres in length, although riders reach their top speeds down Starkey’s Straight, thanks to the high-speed exit leaving Coppice corner.
Expanding on this, Bautista’s Crew Chief, Giulio Nava, said: “The biggest issue was the bumps all around the circuit and the layout a little bit. Alvaro was managing the bike quite well in 2019 and 2022 but we still struggled to make the bike turn as good as some others. You need to have some natural turning from the bike. At Donington, you have some corners where, if you can’t make the first one right, you struggle to keep the line correctly. This was the biggest issue.”
There have only been four different winners at Donington since 2012, with Tom Sykes (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) racking up an impressive nine consecutively between 2013 and 2017 with Kawasaki, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) taking six between 2012 and 2021, including a 2019 hat-trick, Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) with a double for Yamaha in 2018 and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) who’s won five of the last six races there.
The lack of recent success at Donington hasn’t hampered Ducati Corse Technical Coordinator Marco Zambenedetti’s hopes heading into the UK Round as he explained why he believes the barren run at the iconic venue could come to an end this year. He also discussed who he expects to be strong as Bautista’s rivals look to take points out of his Championship lead as the season reaches the halfway point as well as how the new resurfacing could impact Ducati.
Zambenedetti said: “Of course, three wins is the target! It’s realistic. We go to Donington thinking about wins. This is our goal. I think we have everything to take three wins, but it will also be interesting to see the performance of other Ducati riders. I think we can improve also with Bassani and Rinaldi. After last year, we have found some references and a new base that gives us the possibility to perform very well from Friday. This is the most important part of the results we are achieving in 2023. We improved the bike but the feeling, the base setting and references we have from last year are the biggest part. It’s one of the strongest circuits for Toprak and Jonathan. We are curious to understand, and it’s one of the most important parts of the weekend, how the new asphalt has changed the track in terms of bumps. Last year, the only mistake, if we can say this, from Alvaro all year was on the bumps at Donington.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com