Five time World Champion Jonathan Rea has emphasised that consistency will be key to netting a sixth FIM Superbike World Championship, speaking at the 2020 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship Season Launch at an overcast Phillip Island today.
Speaking at the launch, which also marked the 30th year of World Superbike at Phillip Island, Rea said he was happy to be back at the Island with Kawasaki.
Jonathan Rea
“I’m super excited, I think the biggest thing for me is the continuity with the Kawasaki Racing Team. It’s a long championship in Superbike now, with the addition of the Superpole race we have 39 races per year, so it means consistency is even more key than ever.”
Jonathan Rea – Image by TBG
As dominant as the Northern Irishman has been in recent seasons, he’s still acutely aware of the need to stay one step ahead of his championship rivals, “It’s always exciting because there’s so many fast guys here, so many guys can step up on any given weekend and we’ve got to be ready for that.”
Championship rival Alvaro Bautista led Aruba.IT Ducati to a clean-sweep of race wins on his WorldSBK debut in Phillip Island last year. Now having moved across to HRC, he has played down chances of repeating his early 2019 season success, saying there is more work to do to get the Honda to the front of the WSBK field.
Alvaro Bautista
“Last season was a new challenge, it was a new championship, new tyres, new tracks, so I enjoyed it a lot. It was incredible to start a new era (joining WorldSBK) winning the races. But this is a different situation. Everything is brand new and we have a lot of work to do. I will try to do my best, but I don’t think that will be like last season.”
Alvaro Bautista – Image by TBG
At PATA Yamaha, Michael van der Mark will be coming to grips with his new 2020-spec steed.
Michael van der Mark
“It’s not a massive change, when we tested in Jerez and in Portimao we improved a lot, and it was good to see on this track which is completely different the bike was working well again. We just keep making small steps so I’m really happy so far.”
Michael van der Mark – TBG Image
Moving up from winning the British Superbike Championship last year, Aruba.IT Ducati’s Scott Redding was quickly comfortable in the WSBK paddock.
Scott Redding
“It feels really good to be honest. We’ve had a couple of tests now so I’ve had time to settle with the team and my bike. Now going into a race weekend everything’s new to me for a race weekend so I just need to take it a step at a time.”
Scott Redding – Image by TBG
One adaptation that Redding will have to make is getting used to the Tissot Superpole race, with the sprint format still a bit of an unknown for the Ducati rider.
Scott Redding
“I’ve kind of no strategy whatsoever! Just try and go behind somebody that’s going fast and see what happens! Here I think it’s more difficult because tyre wear is quite a big factor, so going from the long race to the short race I’m not so sure. I’ll just go on the moment and see and try and battle it down to the last lap.”
Scott Redding – Image by TBG
BMW’s Eugene Laverty has been encouraged by the performance of the BMW so far but says there’s still a little bit of work to do to bridge the gap to the front runners.
Eugene Laverty
“I’m really pleased with the work we did in the Winter. I can see last year the bike with the chassis was steering really well. Especially at a track like this with fast flowing corners it’s really nice. During the winter they worked a lot on the power delivery and the electronic strategy. I think a big step forward was made. It’s nice to have that factory involvement again, it’s a proper effort.”
Eugene Laverty – TBG Image
In Supersport, Australian Wild Card Oli Bayliss will make his World Supersport debut with Cube Racing this weekend, in addition to his regular ASBK duties. Bayliss Junior will have a busy weekend ahead, but he’s confident of a good showing in his first World Championship appearance.
Oli Bayliss
“So far it’s been really good, we’ve only had two days testing and all the riders are going so fast. If we can keep on improving then hopefully we can go a bit better. A top 15 would be really good, we’re not fighting for the podium or anything.”
Oli Bayliss – Image by TBG
The 2020 event marks 30 years of World Superbike at Phillip Island, with the circuit is locked in to continue hosting the event until 2027.
Practice for the Yamaha Finance Round of the 2020 Yamaha Finance Round begins tomorrow (28 Feb) from Phillip Island.
“It has been a positive test all-in-all. Even though some sessions were hindered a bit by the weather, we have been able to confirm a lot of items from the balance side, to try to get the bike to turn more naturally. That was out focus coming here, knowing what we knew from last year. I felt good with the bike and tested two different front tyres. Both gave good but different sensations so it is more about understanding which one we go towards the weekend with. You never really know in this race. We have done race distance on all the tyres we used and I feel fast and consistent with all. But you never really know until the race. It is clear at this track that you can go all out and be really fast but you tend to run into issues at the end of the race. So it is more about trying to make your consistent rhythm easy and I feel like we have a bike that is quite user-friendly. That is positive to go into Friday with.”
Jonathan Rea – TBG Image
Loris Baz – P2
“For us the season can start, we are ready. The past two days we have done a lot of work, tried many things and we can look back on, once again, a very positive test. We have been able to test many things back-to-back with our eyes on the coming weekend. However, there are a few areas where we need to find something for the races, but I am very satisfied and I am very confident going into the season opener. I am sure that I will have a great season together with this team.”
Loris Baz – GeeBee Image
Tom Sykes – P3
“I’m very happy with the way things have gone. We had very successful winter tests, didn’t get too carried away with the lap times and really focused on the set-up of the BMW S 1000 RR. We really got through a strong test programme and when we came here to Phillip Island, it has paid off. As soon as I rolled out, the bike felt very good and we were able to work on the little parameters that we had in store before the race weekend. Overall, I’m happy with the outcome. We have a lot of information that we will study over next days and we will try to come back strong for the race weekend with a good base set-up. Regarding my goals for the season opener: obviously everybody is here trying to win races. I just want to be more consistent throughout the season but we always have to aim for the podium, always have to try to make that podium into a race win and obviously here it is not different.”
Tom Sykes – GeeBee Image
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – P4
“We worked to have good grip and a bike that turns well and again we will try more with these things with my R1 on Friday. We are happy because for me it is very important that I could ride the R1 at this track in dry conditions. This final afternoon I rode more in a race style and it was not bad; quite good really. But on Friday we will try another new set-up for even better grip. It is important to do race simulations and our laps were consistent. I felt good. Michael was also fast in race conditions so we will see how things are in the races. Phillip Island races can start slow, slow and then fast – I remember last year we started with 1’32 laps times then after some laps we went into the 1’31s. But we will have to see, because this is 2020, not 2019!”
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – TBG Image
Leon Haslam – P5
“We’ve made some steps forward today, despite the windy conditions being a bit of a problem this afternoon. Unfortunately, there is never enough time, especially considering how many elements we have to test but we’ve got a lot done here. Our lap times are not bad and I’m quite happy with our consistency in terms of the tyres. Overall, I feel we’re making good progress although the testing only tells us so much of course. We won’t know exactly where we are until we race, so we’ll know more come the weekend – it’s going to be interesting.”
Leon Haslam – TBG Image
Scott Redding – P6
“I’m very pleased with what we’ve done. They were two important days in which we worked on many aspects. We have closed the gap to front guys and the feeling with the bike is definitely positive. It’s a shame about today’s crash but the important thing is that there were no consequences. Maybe we still need to improve on the single lap but the race pace data is very positive”.
Scott Redding – TBG Image
Michael van der Mark – P7
“I am quite happy with our test and the 2020 R1. Our main goal was to improve our race pace and save our tyres. Yesterday we did a long run, which was really positive, and today we tried some different things with the rear suspension and the pace was there again, especially in a race simulation. So, I am really happy with how the test went but unfortunately this morning when I was on my way to my fastest lap I crashed, so that was a shame. But if you look back at the race simulations they were pretty good. Today I did 20 laps and the tyres were still fine. You have to start the race with a different approach than normal here but this is not my first time in Phillip Island, so we know this. At the beginning I think everyone will be a little bit conservative but at the end we will see who is the strongest. It is always going to be a surprise in this race!”
Michael van der Mark – TBG Image
Eugene Laverty – P9
“I’m a typical rider, I always want more time, an extra day to be ready but it has been a good couple of test days. We’ve worked a lot towards race preparation because you have concentrate on 20 laps not just on one lap and that has been our focus. We still have some work to do to do that fast lap time as for example Tom has been able to do but I’m confident that we will get there. We need to be fighting up there for the podium because this bike’s capable of it at this track. We’re feeling prepared. We need some more dry time on Friday to find our one lap pace but I’m confident that for the long distance, we will be there.”
Eugene Laverty – TBG Image
Alvaro Bautista – P10
“This test has been very important for us of course and I think we’ve made progress. With respect to yesterday, my feeling with the Fireblade was a little better this morning, while this afternoon was a little trickier in the wind and on a more slippery track. We’ve also tested tyres today, finding positives and negatives as is always the case, and we also attempted a long run in order to collect as much data as possible ahead of the first races. All this information is really important as we move forward and I’m confident we can take another step forward this coming weekend. The potential, power and speed are all there, now we just need to work to be able to effectively harness it all.”
Alvaro Bautista was the busiest rider over the two days, putting in 126 laps – TBG Image
Chaz Davies – P11
“It’s been a busy couple of days. If I’m honest, I think I found a good feeling, maybe not great but still positive even if we still have to perfect the set up for the race. Compared to the first day of testing, however, today the feeling was better. It is clear that we still have a lot of work to do but there is a lot of confidence and above all a lot of desire to start the season in the best possible way.”
Chaz Davies – TBG Image
Alex Lowes – P12
“Obviously it has not been as easy to find the right feeling and set-up on the bike as I would have liked coming here but also it is the first time on the bike on such a strange track layout. It is so fast here, with lots of changes of direction. How I felt on the bike earlier in the winter tests was not quite the same here, so we worked a bit on the set-up. I got a little bit frustrated a couple of times, made a couple of mistakes, but the last session it was a bit better and we have found a base set-up that I can go into the weekend with. I am looking forward to getting my first race weekend in green started in a few days from now.”
Alex Lowes – TBG Image
Garrett Gerloff – P16
“This is my first time here in Phillip Island and I am really enjoying the track. The only thing is that it has been a bit more difficult than I had originally imagined because of how fast the track is. For example, if I make one small mistake it becomes a huge mistake by the time I get to the corner. It’s been hard to be precise and I am working on it. Also we are making a big step in the bike set up because this track is pretty different than the other tracks where we have been testing in the last few months, so I think it requires a different set up. I think today in the second session we made a big step in the right direction. I am definitely looking forward to the weekend, I think it was nice that we had two days of testing but yesterday we only tested about 2 hours of the 4 hours because of weather and other track conditions. Luckily today we had more time, but I still feel like more laps would be beneficial. I am looking forward to getting back on track on Friday and I have a game plan!”
Federico Caricasulo – P17
“The feeling is getting better and better. We have tried out several strategies and by the last session we have determined which direction to take. This will be a good base for Friday. For the rest of the race weekend we will try to get closer to the front. As my personal objective, TOP10 would be a very good result for myself.”
Takumi Takahashi – P19
“I’m glad I was able to get back out for some additional track time this afternoon and that the weather conditions allowed us to work without interruption. It was a bit windy but that was not a problem for me. I must say thanks to my technicians who all worked very hard yesterday and this morning to get me back out on track, as it was important to try and complete as many laps as possible. We still have a lot to do, in terms of both bike set-up and me learning the track, but I’m looking forward to Friday when my first WorldSBK race weekend will begin.”
Pere Riba – Crew Chief for Jonathan Rea
“Before coming here, and it is the same as every year, we knew this is the real first time that you can see everybody – all the teams, riders and manufacturers – and there are some new bikes and riders – so before you come here you are expecting to see where everybody is. Now we can understand where everyone is. Last year was tough for us even if Johnny finished all the races in second place; Alvaro was really strong and riding really well. We struggled with the rear tyre so before we came here I studied this aspect and we focused 100% on the most important points of this track. Phillip Island is quite unique and we have to save the tyre for race distance. But at the same time you have to be fast. We worked calmly with Johnny and he understands what this track asks of him, so step-by-step we focused and followed all the items we wanted to test – all the plans – so we are happy.”
Paul Denning – Pata Yamaha Team Principal
“I don’t think any team or manufacturer finishes the Phillip Island test with all the boxes ticked and all the answers they might have been looking for put into place. However, despite a few more details still to improve, in general, we are very happy with the work completed and the raw pace of both riders and the R1. The crew have done a great job, including on Mikey’s side to get a badly damaged bike ready during the second free practice today. Now the job is to simply make a clear plan for the race weekend and find a couple of tenths where we can, but more importantly, provide the guys with an R1 that can do 22 strong and consistent laps on Saturday and Sunday – our goals are certainly higher than they were at this circuit a year ago.”
Marc Bongers – BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director
“In general, we are well prepared for the season opener. After the tests in Jerez and Portimão we had some open points that we were able to continue and to confirm here in good conditions. Now we have to make our choice for the race weekend. Tom’s pace is strong and we now have to try to keep it over the race distance. With Eugene, we have identified a few things we will work on for the weekend to also further improve his pace. Our goal for the opening round is: we want to start from the front row and I think that we have the chance to get onto the podium.”
Shaun Muir – Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team
“We’ve had two good days of testing here in Australia. On Eugene’s side, we’ve had a lot of information to work through and we had satisfying results, mostly with the electronics and his feel for the delivery of the power. That has been his focus area and while we are happy so far we will take some of this work into Friday. On Tom’s side we’ve had a huge list of items for him to test over the two days. We are pretty happy with where we are. We’ve not managed to do much race simulation due to the extensive test items, so that will be Fridays focus. We know we can qualify very well and aim to be on the front row in qualifying. But it’s not about qualifying, it’s about the race and we know that to be in contention for a podium position, we need to do consistent fast lap times in the latter parts of race. To do so and to be on the podium is definitely the goal for the season opener.”
Marcel Duinker – Crew Chief for Alex Lowes
“We did not finish where we would have wanted to finish in the timesheets but we were fast and competitive over race distance, which is very positive. We did most laps during this test, which was one of our targets. This is a special track and we did not have too many laps in the previous winter tests before we got here. The overall package of Alex and the bike are still fresh and therefore I am sure we can improve our performance for the weekend.”
Phillip Island WorldSBK Testing Final Combined Times
Pos
Rider
Bike
Time/Gap
1
J. Rea
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
1m30.448
2
L. Baz
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.076
3
T. Sykes
BMW S1000 RR
+0.120
4
T. Razgatlioglu
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.292
5
L. Haslam
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+0.434
6
S. Redding
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+0.437
7
M. Van Der Mark
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.629
8
M. Rinaldi
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+0.959
9
E. Laverty
BMW S1000 RR
+0.988
10
A. Bautista
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+1.005
11
C. Davies
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+1.085
12
A. Lowes
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.112
13
S. Cortese
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.117
14
X. Fores
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.205
15
M. Scheib
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.362
16
G. Gerloff
Yamaha YZF R1
+1.493
17
F. Caricasulo
Yamaha YZF R1
+1.496
18
L. Camier
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+2.228
19
T. Takahashi
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+5.866
Phillip Island WorldSBK Testing Tuesday Afternoon Top Speeds
Wishing you, your family, and Team Kawasaki, all the very best for this coming year, as always, Go Mr JR, Go Team Kawasaki x Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
The Phillip Island circuit in Australia hosted the final pre-season test for the WorldSBK riders on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 February, wi Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
The weather held out for the start of the final two-hour WorldSBK pre-season practice session at Phillip Island this afternoon. The ambient temperature was 21.5-degrees and the track temperature 27.5-degrees.
When pit-lane opened at 1340 the pits emptied quickly and the track was suddenly very busy indeed.
Scott Redding exits pit-lane
Jonathan Rea was quickly back in the 1m30s and Scott Redding also dipped into that bracket for the first time this week on his fifth lap out this afternoon before then crashing on the following lap at turn ten. The Briton looked to be limping a little and favouring his hip when he returned to the pits, his V4 R was a little more worse for wear.
Ducati mechanics swarmed around Redding’s V4 R when it came back to the pits
Nothing to do with the earlier Redding incident, but the red flag came out half-an-hour into the session for a brief interlude when Cape Barren Geese invaded the circuit. Riders returned to pit-lane but the track was live again only minutes later.
On his first lap back out Rea improved to 1m30.526, a smidgen off his morning best of 1m30.448. Loris Baz then dropped in a 1m30.781 to further underline his consistent pace.
Alex Lowes
The top of the time-sheets then remained static for quite some time as riders worked on testing various things for their teams.
It was not until there was only 30-minutes remaining in the session that riders started pushing for times once again. Tom Sykes recorded a 1m30.995 before returning to pit-lane. Witnesses reported a smell reminiscent of burning electrics emanating from the Factory BMW.
BMW mechanics chase some not so great smells coming from the S 1000 RR
The final dying minutes of the session though brought little excitement. The track temperature had risen to 32.7-degrees as the afternoon had wore on and it seemed as though few riders were bothering with a last-minute time attack.
Jonathan Rea
That was apart from Loris Baz. The 27-year-old Frenchman improved his afternoon marker to 1m30.758, still slower than his 1m30.524 set this morning. He then cruised for a lap before putting another fast one, 1m31.005.
Loris Baz
Jonathan Rea left pit-lane with only just enough time to make it across the stripe for a final flying lap before the chequered flag came out. He was immediately under at the first split by -0.125, under again at the second but ultimately his 1m30.523 was not quite good enough to beat his morning benchmark of 1m30.448.
Leon Haslam was also a late improver and put his one and only 1m30s lap in during the final stages of the session. A 1m30.882 to the Honda man good enough to push Redding back to fourth for the session. On combined times though Haslam was fifth and Redding sixth, as both Sykes and Razgatlioglu had gone quicker in the morning session.
Leon Haslam
The Honda of Bautista didn’t beat the 322.4 km/h speed he recorded in the morning session, but the new Fireblade was still quickest through the speed traps this afternoon at 317.6 km/h. For comparative purposes, Bautista was the fastest through the speed trap at the Phillip Island WorldSBK race event last year with 322.4 km/h on the Ducati V4 R in practice. Chaz Davies set the fastest speed here last year in a race at 321.4 km/h on the Ducati.
324.6 km/h is the outright fastest speed recorded by a World Superbike here at Phillip Island. That benchmark was set by Max Biaggi in 2012 when there was no engine RPM restrictions in WorldSBK, and no limit on the amount of engines a rider could use in a season. Biaggi is rumoured to have gone through 35 engines that season in the Aprilia RSV4. Restrictions on the number of engines allowed to be used were then introduced to counter this situation and last year only seven engines were allowed to be used by each rider over the course of the season.
Bautista was consistently fastest through the speed traps in all sessions on the new Fireblade
Top speeds are recorded near the 200 metre board heading towards turn one. There are two timing loops set 30 metres apart, the time taken to cross that 30 metres is what is used to calculate the official speed trap figures.
Wayne Maxwell’s time on his ASBK specification Ducati Panigale V4 R at the test here a few weeks ago was 1m31.7. Pirelli shod ASBK runners use the exact same tyre specification as what the WorldSBK riders are using here today but ASBK bikes are very much standard, unlike the heavily modified World Superbike machines. Over the course of a Phillip Island race weekend ASBK riders are permitted three rear tyres, while the much busier WorldSBK riders can use 13 rear tyres over their race weekend.
Alvaro Bautista was the busiest rider over the two days, putting in 126 laps
Alvaro Bautista put in the most laps of any rider this week at 126, 50 of those were recorded in that final two-hour session this afternoon. Alex Lowes was the next hardest worker at 124 and Van der Mark put in 123 laps.
Pace-setter Rea recorded 95 laps over the two days, and examining the lap times he put in across the test he looks to have the competition covered. It would be a brave man to bet against the Northern Irishman here this weekend at the 2020 WorldSBK season opener.
My money is on Jonathan Rea this weekend
Phillip Island WorldSBK Testing Final Session
Pos
Rider
Bike
Time/Gap
1
J. Rea
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
1m30.523
2
L. Baz
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.235
3
L. Haslam
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+0.359
4
S. Redding
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+0.362
5
T. Sykes
BMW S1000 RR
+0.472
6
M. Van Der Mark
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.564
7
T. Razgatlioglu
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.776
8
M. Rinaldi
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+0.884
9
S. Cortese
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.042
10
X. Fores
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.130
11
E. Laverty
BMW S1000 RR
+1.147
12
M. Scheib
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.287
13
C. Davies
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+1.314
14
A. Lowes
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.340
15
G. Gerloff
Yamaha YZF R1
+1.418
16
F. Caricasulo
Yamaha YZF R1
+1.458
17
A. Bautista
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+1.482
18
L. Camier
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+2.241
19
T. Takahashi
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+5.791
Phillip Island WorldSBK Testing Final Combined Times
Pos
Rider
Bike
Time/Gap
1
J. Rea
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
1m30.448
2
L. Baz
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.076
3
T. Sykes
BMW S1000 RR
+0.120
4
T. Razgatlioglu
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.292
5
L. Haslam
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+0.434
6
S. Redding
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+0.437
7
M. Van Der Mark
Yamaha YZF R1
+0.629
8
M. Rinaldi
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+0.959
9
E. Laverty
BMW S1000 RR
+0.988
10
A. Bautista
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+1.005
11
C. Davies
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+1.085
12
A. Lowes
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.112
13
S. Cortese
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.117
14
X. Fores
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.205
15
M. Scheib
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
+1.362
16
G. Gerloff
Yamaha YZF R1
+1.493
17
F. Caricasulo
Yamaha YZF R1
+1.496
18
L. Camier
Ducati Panigale V4 R
+2.228
19
T. Takahashi
Honda CBR1000RR-R
+5.866
Phillip Island WorldSBK Testing Tuesday Afternoon Top Speeds
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