While the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship enjoys a short break between rounds, one rider is keeping busy by jumping on a MotoGP™ bike. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) will ride the Desmosedici GP at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” during a two-day test in Italy as a reward for his 2022 WorldSBK title success with the Aruba.it Ducati team running the Misano outing with Bautista.
Bautista raced in MotoGP™ as recently as 2018 before he switched to WorldSBK in 2019 where he initially challenged for the title before falling away in the second half of the campaign. Two years with Honda proved to be difficult for the 38-year-old but a return to Ducati last season paid dividends. He claimed the World Championship after a season-long fight with Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) and his title defence is well underway with 14 wins in 15 races.
Between the Emilia-Romagna an UK Rounds, Bautista will return to MotoGP™ machinery as part of a two-day test with the Aruba.it Ducati squad which ran Michele Pirro at the Italian Grand Prix, with the local rider finishing 16th in the Grand Prix. The test will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as he tests the Ducati MotoGP™ machine at Misano; a circuit he recently took a hat-trick at in WorldSBK.
Looking ahead to the test, the 38-year-old said: “I feel so happy to ride a MotoGP™ bike again as it’s been a long time since I rode this kind of bike. For sure, the excitement is there. At the same time, I know it’s just a prize so it’s about taking it easy, building some references, some feeling with the bike and that’s it. I’ll try to have some fun riding the bike. In the end, I approach this test with the mentality that it’s a test. It’s not for anything in the future. It’s to have some fun during the two-day test. I don’t want to take risks because we have three races in a row very soon, and that’s the important thing. This test is just to have fun. I don’t try to find the limit. I just go there and take some references and feeling and have some fun.
“I don’t have any lap time in mind. I’m going to make the test just with my feeling without watching the lap times. That’s all. There is no target with lap times. The target is just to have fun, try to get a good feeling and understand the new MotoGP™ machinery with the aero packages and all the electronic items and everything that the bike has now compared to when I raced. That’s all. After the test, there is nothing more. We have the test because it’s a prize for the World Championship we won last season. It’s a prize. There is no other reason. After the test, if we have a good feeling, I will be happy. Otherwise, I will not be as happy as I expect to be!”
While Bautista has spoken ahead of the test about there being “nothing more” after the test, he has spoken about a potential wildcard previously. The test will be covered extensively on WorldSBK.com with a team on the ground to produce video footage of Bautista on track while he will also be interviewed to get his first reactions on the test at Misano.
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Source: WorldSBK.com