A meagre point at the Superbike World Championship in Misano: Philipp Öttl experiences another mixed WSBK weekend and has similar problems to Jonathan Rea
At the Superbike World Championship in Misano (Italy), Philipp Öttl also found it difficult to build on the form of the past two years. Since switching from GoEleven-Ducati to GMT94-Yamaha, Öttl has struggled to finish in the points under his own steam
The weekend in Misano did not start according to plan on Friday. In the first practice session, the Yamaha’s engine went up in smoke after just a few minutes. As a result, the German lost valuable practice time.
“A bike can break down, but when it gives up the ghost after just ten minutes, that’s pretty stupid,” “It wasn’t the start to the weekend that I had hoped for.”
“But I wouldn’t say that the defect on Friday was the reason,” notes Öttl and explains: “We already had some problems during the test. I crashed quite heavily. As we only have one bike, I missed half a day of testing because the bike had to be rebuilt.”
Öttl also suffered a minor injury in the crash. “I had problems with my shoulder. It had improved a bit by the weekend, but I had a cold the week before and wasn’t really fit on Friday as a result. I was given antibiotics and that made it better,” revealed Öttl.
The highlight of the Misano weekend was 15th place in the final race on Sunday afternoon. “The second race wasn’t too bad,” summarized Öttl, who is still struggling with the switch to the Yamaha R1: “I’m still lacking a bit of understanding of the bike. And there’s still something missing from the bike too. “
Similar statements to Jonathan Rea: Yamaha difficult to understand
Ottl’s statements are similar to those of record champion Jonathan Rea, who is also having problems with the changeover. “You can get up to speed quickly on the Yamaha, but it’s difficult to find that last little bit,” said Öttl.
“It’s not easy to understand the bike. It works differently from track to track. We’re going round in circles a bit with the set-up. We’re not making any direct progress,” said Öttl, annoyed at the lack of progress.
“At least we’ve made some progress here,” he tries to see the positives. “Of course, you have to adapt your riding style to the bike. I didn’t think it would take so long. It is always said that the Yamaha is an easy bike to understand. But it doesn’t behave like the production bike that we can train with. “
What Philipp Öttl still wants to achieve by the end of the season
Training laps with the production R1 are only of limited help because the difference to the WSBK version is too great. “The bike is very far away. The racing version has much more power and rides completely differently,” compares Öttl.
The results make it clear that Öttl coped much better with the Ducati Panigale V4R. The style demanded by the bike was more in line with Öttl’s natural riding style, but he doesn’t want to let that be an excuse.
“I want to show that I can also be fast on this bike. That’s my goal for this year. Whether that’s possible or not remains to be seen,” said Öttl, who was unable to make any statements about his future during the WSBK weekend in Misano.
