A handful of MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship teams ventured to MotorLand Aragon for testing between the French and Italian Rounds, including the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK with riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani. With a new surface at Aragon, teams were collecting valuable data ahead of the round in a couple of weeks, while being able to work on setting up their machines for what could be a challenging weekend at a pivotal part of the season.
The team were preparing for the Aragon Round but also used the test to continue developing the ZX-10RR machine, which will remain on the grid in 2025 despite KRT morphing into the Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team squad with the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing squad. The test was therefore a good chance to prepare for the round but also continue developing the current bike ahead of next season.
Conditions at the 5.077km were dry but windy, with Lowes and Bassani having to deal with an extra challenge at the test, but it still proved to be productive for the duo. The #22 completed two race simulations as the team worked on understanding tyre life on the resurfaced circuit while working on different tyre combinations. Bassani had a particular focus on the electronics side of the bike while trying something new on the front of his bike.
Reviewing the test, Lowes said: “Another positive test overall. We found challenging conditions with the wind, but I felt good with the bike. We managed to try some different tyre combinations. I think tyre life could be an issue over race weekend, depending on the track temperature and conditions. The new surface is quite a lot different to the old surface. We collected some good information from two full race simulations, and we did a lot of laps. Now I am ready to go home, have a birthday weekend with the family and recharge the batteries ready for the back-to-back race weekends coming up shortly. Thanks to the team for their big effort in this past week.”
Bassani added: “We have had two days on track at Aragon and we improved some parts on the bike. I think it has been a productive two days of testing. The new asphalt, for sure, has a lot of grip. We used the SCO tyre and once the SCX. This final afternoon there was increased wind but in general we worked a lot on the electronics, and we also tried something new on the front. It was working well so I hope it will also be nice in Cremona. It has been a long two days because testing shortly after a race weekend it is never easy work. But the team was good, and we did a lot of laps. I am really happy about the work from the team and the improvements we found.”
Follow all the action from WorldSBK in 2024 using the WorldSBK VideoPass – now 50% off!
Source: WorldSBK.com