The 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship has been a rollercoaster affair for Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). After starting the season with challenges through injury and not having the same feeling on the Panigale V4 R as last year, although he has signed a new contract for 2025 and had a better feeling in recent rounds. In a sit-down interview, the #1 discussed his new deal, goals for the end of the season and 2025, his rivalry with teammate Nicolo Bulega and how Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) has exceeded his expectations following the Turkish star’s move to BMW.
2025 SEAT SECURED: “I’m very happy to be here at least next year in WorldSBK”
After months of speculation about his future, Bautista put pen to paper on a new deal to see him through until the end of 2025 with the decision announced leading up to the French Round. The double Champion reflected on this during the interview, preferring to stay focused on the current season in order to end it on a high before starting next year in a better way compared to this season.
On his contract renewal and goals, Bautista said: “I’m so happy to renew the contract with Aruba Ducati because it’s a wish for me to keep racing and, in the end, we reached an agreement. I’m very happy to be here at least next year in WorldSBK. For next year, I prefer, as I always say, to take the decision year by year. My career has been very long. I just want to go year by year, and don’t want to put pressure on me or the team. The goal for 2025 is not clear yet. We have to finish 2024 and it’ll be important to end the season with a good feeling, in that I’m competitive and can ride the bike as I want. Then, we’ll think about ’25. At the moment, I want to use the remaining races of 2024 to recover the feeling again and push at 100%.”
THE SEASON SUMMED UP: “2024’s been very difficult… I think I will be a more complete rider”
Bautista secured 27 wins in 2023, a WorldSBK record for wins in a season, but 2024 has been a stark contrast. Two wins – in Barcelona and Assen – have been the main highlights although he’s secured 12 podiums in total. He sits third in the Riders’ Championship standings, behind Razgatlioglu and Bulega, although he’s more than 100 points back from leader Razgatlioglu. Bautista looked back on his season, which turned a corner at Most where he and the team found something to help the Spaniard with his feeling.
“I can say that 2024’s been very difficult,” stated Bautista. “For me, it was a difficult winter with my injury from last year. I wasn’t 100% clear on whether to keep racing because I had a lot of problems. I couldn’t sleep at night because I had a lot of pain. Nobody knew the reality of my injury, but it was one of the worst because, basically until last July, I couldn’t sleep without pain. It was really hard. After that, the feeling with the bike wasn’t the best at the beginning of the season but during the Most weekend, we found something that helped me a lot to recover the feeling. It was like a took off a big weight from inside. From there It was very clear I wanted to keep racing. In fact, I said my decision to keep racing publicly after the Most round because it was clear. I wanted to continue, and I didn’t want to finish my career like I started this season.”
He went on to discuss this season compared to his title-winning campaigns, saying: “In the last two seasons, I won the titles. This season, with my physical problems, the new rules, and the problem I found with the bike, I had to learn and improve on other abilities that maybe in 2022 and 2023, I didn’t use and now I have to use them. For the future, I think I will be a more complete rider.”
TEAMMATE RIVALRY: “The first rider you want to beat is your teammate…”
A well-known saying in motorsport is that the first rider you want to beat is your teammate and, in 2022 and 2023, Bautista managed that against Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team Motocorsa Racing). This year is different for the Spaniard, with Bulega ahead in the standings, although Bautista did play the importance of beating his teammate down.
Discussing his rivalry with Bulega, Bautista said: “The first rider you want to beat is your teammate and it’s clear you want to be the first rider in the team. It’s a good target but it’s not something that worries me. If I can beat him, okay; if not, it doesn’t matter. I think Bulega is a very strong rider. I knew he could be competitive in WorldSBK. He has a lot of talent but he’s also a really good worker, he’s really fast and we are recovering from a really difficult start to the season. For me, it’s important that I can finish the season with a good feeling than the position I finish.”
RAZGATLIOGLU’S IMPRESSIVE FORM: “I thought he could be very competitive; maybe not as competitive as he has been!”
Razgatlioglu surged into the Championship lead after a run of 13 consecutive victories in WorldSBK, which came to a halt in France after he was declared unfit following his huge Free Practice 2 crash. ‘El Turco’ made the move to BMW for 2024 and sits 55 points clear of Bulega in the Championship standings, with Bautista praising his rival for his results this season, revealing that he expected Razgatlioglu to be competitive on the M 1000 RR but ‘maybe not as competitive as he has been’.
On Razgatlioglu’s form, Bautista said: “I think Toprak’s season is more than better! Already last year, I said it wasn’t a bad decision to go to BMW. I saw a good bike and I thought with the talent of Toprak, he can be very competitive; maybe not as competitive as he has been! They also have a lot of concessions. In the end, they worked really well and it’s good to have more competitiveness in the Championship. If next year, I can arrive to my best level and the bike, I think we can be very close. I also think that in the next rounds, if we get to our best level, we can be very close to him. If we compare my performance from last year with the performance of Toprak, it’s very similar. With the performance we had last year, this season we could fight almost every race with him. For sure, it would be more spectacular because last year I went alone and this year, he’s alone. I think if you could mix both seasons, it’d be a good fight! Maybe you could see it in the next rounds or next season.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com