Teams and riders in the 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship are already preparing for next season at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, with the second of two days of testing. Garrett Gerloff was quick on Day 1 as he linked up with Manuel Puccetti’s Kawasaki WorldSBK Team for the first time, but attention turned to his ZX-10RR on Wednesday with the team testing new components including an engine upgrade.
Gerloff completed 77 laps on his ZX-10Rr on Tuesday and set a 1’39.650s as he got up to speed on his Kawasaki machine. It was his first taste of the bike after two seasons on the BMW M 1000 RR, and three seasons on the Yamaha YZF R1 prior to that. It was a quick learning curve for the American who ended 2024 on a high with two podiums and consistently fighting for the top-five positions.
Team Manager Manuel Puccetti, speaking on Wednesday morning, explained the team’s first impressions of Gerloff while also revealing new components that would be tested today: “We’re very happy, he’s quite fast immediately on the bike. Today, we’ll start to test some new parts for next year, especially a new engine and a new suspension upgrade. I believe we’ll find another good step in the afternoon. We’re getting quicker and quicker, so very good.”
Gerloff’s focus on Day 1 was to get comfortable with the bike. With the Independent Kawasaki Puccetti Racing – as it was known in 2024 – outfit using factory material last year, Gerloff was running a bike similar to KRT’s Alex Lowes’ machine during the Spanish Round, as well as Tito Rabat who raced for the Independent team. In 2025, Puccetti’s team will be the manufacturer’s sole outfit with Bimota running with the previous Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK. With that checked off successfully, attention turned to 2025 upgrades and especially the engine.
Explaining where the new engine has been improved and what he thinks the differences are, plus whether Gerloff’s inline-four engine experience would help, Puccetti said: “It has some updates. It’s a new engine. It’s the 2024 engine with many new parts inside. It’s the first time we have this engine. I think the main difference is the power. This was my rider choice, looking for a top rider that had already ridden this kind of inline-four. I believe it was closer compared to this bike compared to taking a rider from a V4. Of course, if they’re fast, they’ll be fast anyway, but the jump is shorter if you come from a similar bike.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com