WM leader Alvaro Bautista compares the 2019 Ducati Panigale V4R with the version for the 2022 WSBK season and recognises a big difference
The World Superbike Championship season opener confirmed that the combination of Alvaro Bautista and the Ducati Panigale V4R is very powerful.
The speed of Bautista on the V4 Ducati could already be seen at the start of the 2019 season, when he won most of the first eleven races with confidence and looked like the sure-fire world champion. But a few crashes set the Spaniard back then. According to Bautista, the signs are good that this will not happen again in 2022.
\Es is already the fourth season with Ducati’s V4 superbike. Compared to the first season, the bike has been further developed in some areas. According to Bautista, this should have less impact on pure performance, but consistency and the margin for error have been improved.
More margin for error should prevent crashes
“The bike didn’t necessarily get faster, but Ducati was able to improve the negative aspects significantly. It seems like the bike has a better balance,” explained the Ducati returnee. “My feeling is that I am as fast as I was three years ago. But back then I was very close to the limit. “
“It was very easy to go over that limit. Now I have more leeway. That is very important. It’s important to be fast but have safety margins,” knows Bautista, who lost the World Championship title three years ago due to his riding mistakes.
“It was the first year for Ducati then. They needed more experience and information. We tried different things to find out which way to go to improve the bike. We were a bit lost at the halfway point of the season,” admits the Ducati returnee.
Alvaro Bautista has more experience than in the 2019 WSBK season
In addition to his lack of experience with the new V4 superbike, Bautista was set back by his own lack of experience. “I didn’t have much experience in this championship with these tyres. It was hard for me to give direction,” recalls the former MotoGP rider. Jonathan Rea made the most of his experience to claim his fifth World Championship title in 2019.
Bautista was not a World Championship contender in 2020 and 2021. With the Honda Fireblade, the Spaniard mostly rode in the midfield. Ducati relied on Scott Redding in the past two years. The Briton was runner-up in the world championship in 2020 and finished last season in third place.
Are the votes of the 2019 season any help?
The experiences of the 2019 season are still helpful for Bautista. When in doubt, the Ducati returnee can fall back on the set-ups from 2019. “We can use some experience,” confirms Bautista.
“But in the tests so far and the races in Aragon, I didn’t look at the data from 2019. The tyres were different then,” he compares. “The SCX tyre didn’t exist yet. I had to ride with the SC0 tyre or even harder tyres.”
After the three races at Aragon, Bautista leads the riders’ standings with 57 out of a possible 62 points. Jonathan Rea is currently second in the championship with 54 points, recognising that Bautista is not as dominant as he was at the start of 2019. Defending champion Toprak Razgatlioglu follows in third position in the championship with 39 points to his name.
