Sixth 14 seconds behind winner Rinaldi, but just 10 “ahead of Rea, the final podium and in a small group, 4” ahead of Redding and only one ahead of Lowes. Alvaro Bautista could be happy with this result, but only a few days ago after that the world champion himself described him as his toughest rival to beat in his only season with Ducati The Spaniard is not considered a rookie in the championship. But not because of his driving style, but because of some unsolved problems with his Honda.
“When we talk about performance, I’m not happy. Especially today in FP3 I don’t know why, but I’ve suffered a lot with my bike which was very unstable, especially when braking. Honestly, I finished FP3 and almost wanted to cry, I could barely ride. But we made some changes for the afternoon and I think the conditions with less grip on the asphalt also helped us to make the bike better. The morning was a disaster, I couldn’t ride “.
How did you even cope with the situation?
“In Superpole, I felt better with the small changes we made, but I continued to suffer from braking. I don’t understand why as we didn’t have this problem in either Estoril or Aragon. Here it came about. Superpole wasn’t fun, because my best lap in Portimao was canceled because of the yellow flags. Here I found the yellow because of Gerloff, I lost my first good tire and my time. I was a little angry, but at least I got a second chance and tried to do my best. I didn’t want to exceed the limit or do a great lap, but at least I didn’t want to make any mistakes. I didn’t feel that comfortable on the bike, but thanks to the setup we took a small step forward for the race and improved the situation a little. I suffer if I have to overtake the others especially here because I can’t pull away too much and I also have little grip at the back. I lose too many meters out of the corners and when I try to overtake someone on the next straight, I’m always far away. If the situation is like that and I have too Brake problems, chaos because I don’t know how to overtake the others. I’ve done a lot of laps behind the other drivers, while I’m alone I can find my pace which may not even be fantastic, but it is acceptable. The problem is I lose three or four rounds behind the others. “
What does HRC do? Are you talking to the manufacturer in Japan?
“HRC works a lot on our problems and on this project. You work for the SBK as well as for the MotoGP. Here we have the MotoGP project team, which also has the same role for the SBK. I think everyone at Honda, including myself, expected more from this season, but we understand that we haven’t made a clear step forward compared to last season. But now the development continues and I don’t know where we are because there are so many ways in which we can improve the bike. There are so many things to improve, it’s a general matter that affects everything. We can make progress in every way. “
Has anything changed with Leon Camier as team manager?
“I’m happy to have Leon with us, he knows the feelings of a motorcyclist very good and when I talk to the engineers and explain what I feel, he often brings his point of view. He looks at things on the track and analyzes the differences between the different bikes. He understands the differences between motorcycles very well and knows the problems we have. He really understands everything and is helpful for the whole team, for me, for the engineers. He understands me and also understands the engineers. Sometimes he explains things to engineers, sometimes he explains them to me. “
How is it possible to solve the problems, maybe like BMW that built a new bike?
“I am not the person to decide, I can only do my best. In this championship it is not possible to make new frames or the like, as is the case for example in MotoGP. If we could, we would have reached a certain level first. It’s difficult here because we can’t change too many things on the bike, We cannot change the frame, make it more or less rigid. Nothing. I’m not an engineer, I just tell them what my feelings are and they tell me how to solve any problem. I’m not telling the engineers that we need a new bike. I just tell them the things that don’t work. You decide how to work to make things work. “
Audio by Riccardo Guglielmetti