Just two more days and the first round of the 2013 World Superbike season will officially start and the riders after the two days of official testing are now ready to take on the new season, despite having lost half a day this morning due to a damp track.
Even if the track was damp, a few riders went out with the teams praticing the quick wheel changes that now constitutes the new flag-to-flag rules for the series.
Here’s what some of the riders said at the end of the final day of testing:Tom Sykes: “I definitely used my injured arm a lot today because it has been sleeping.
My crew chief has been doing a good job of waking it up.
I know that the wrist has been knocked about and you can tell there is a crack in it, likewise the ribs are pretty sore, but I have every confidence in Kawasaki and all of the team.
Big thanks to my crew chief Marcel and my team manager Guim because they made a very important call to make on Thursday after the accident.
We have started to regroup now and be where we need to be.
There is still work to be done but with six hours track time the boys have done a fantastic job, one that has made my life easier.
I can get on and ride the bike and I am enjoying it.
I had been a little bit tense due to the circuit catching me out a few days ago, but I finished well, with a lot of information.
I am fortunate to have some clever people working with me and we have made up for lost ground.
We did a lot of laps yesterday and felt OK when I woke up this morning.
”Loris Baz: “It was not so easy at the beginning of this test because I crashed in the previous one and it was not easy to get my confidence back, so I was riding really under the limit.
It is really important to be free with the bike and let it go in the corners.
Then we managed to find something, more with me then the bike I think, and we improved a lot.
That was really positive.
I think we are going to be OK and even improve again on Friday.
” Jules Cluzel: “We improved this afternoon and the feeling was much better with the front.
We tried a different rear tyre and the feeling also improved, but on lap three I lost the rear on the last corner.
I don’t know why it happened and it’s difficult to explain because I was little bit slower and with less throttle.
I think the asphalt is really strange here and I am continuing to learn this the hard way! I have no feeling for it, so we have to continue to find some and stop the crashes, because they have been all the same.
I have lost the rear and we need to understand why this is happening.
I hope we can improve something in the race weekend, because my feeling for the bike is becoming more positive.
”Leon Camier: “I just kept things really steady today to be honest! This morning was drizzling, so we didn’t even make a lap and this afternoon we just had a few small things to try.
We tested the harder tyres to see how long they would last and which would be the best tyre to run, if it is colder on race-day.
We just cruised around really and didn’t try to go for any lap-times this afternoon, it was all about confirming a few things and making sure the bike’s feeling was right.
”Carlos Checa: ‘I’m extremely happy with the results; it was a nice surprise to make the fastest lap, with everybody riding in the same conditions.
I honestly didn’t believe that we’d be at this level at this point; I thought I’d finish about seventh.
We were already able to find a good base setting yesterday and then continued to work from there today.
I like the fact that every change we make to this bike is positive and it seems that everything we do results in us going in the right direction.
The team are working really well together and this is the first time this year that we’ve had good conditions that have allowed us to spend a lot of time on the bike.
Working on this new project right now is one of the most satisfying moments of my life.
It is an exciting challenge and today’s results show that the bike has great potential and that there is still room for improvement.
’Ayrton Badovini: ‘I only did a few laps today, just to see how I felt on the bike.
I have a hematoma on my liver and that makes me very sore – especially through the right turns and when changing direction at speed.
According to the doctor, this kind of thing normally needs one month to heal properly, but I’m hoping that, after two days rest, I will be able to get on my bike and get round the circuit ok.
I’m reasonably happy with what we got done last week.
I’ve never ridden a twin before and the bike’s characteristics are very different to what I’m used to.
So far I’ve been concentrating on making small steps forward, instead of trying anything radical and I feel that we’re making progress.
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We have to improve quite a few things, but that is normal with a new bike.
I am positive that once we get the bike dialled in, we can get good results.
’Davide Giugliano: “ Just one hour before the beginning of the last session, I was running a fever of almost 38° so I´m glad I participated to the tests and had reached a good time.
We worked hard and well, and I think I´m ready for the first round of the World Superbike Championship.
However, the uncertainty remains of the tires that we can use during the weekend as we do not know which temperature there will be.
Regarding the bike, I am satisfied with the level reached even if we still have some things we can improve.
I´m not happy with my seventh place today because it is not a position suited to the value of our team, but we were oriented to work more on the bike than seeking the lap time.
”Jonathan Rea: It can be strange riding at Phillip Island, especially doing so many testing laps over four days.
The conditions can change so dramatically – yesterday we had almost 60 degrees of track temperature and today it was less than 25.
The wind changed going down the straight, from a tail-wind yesterday to being in our faces today, and the changing conditions can upset the chassis settings on the bike.
Yesterday, I didn’t feel that good but today it was 100 times better.
We’ve been trying to do a lot of laps on old tyres and we still have some tyre life issues to work on for the race weekend, but I think that’s a common problem up and down pit lane.
The tests have finished positively, even though we didn’t get a chance for a maximum time attack.
The guys in my crew have been working really hard to get the electronics set up to my exact liking, especially the application of the traction control, but we’ve learned a lot.
We still have a lot to do for the weekend – it’s clear that, if we want to go fast on a new tyre, we can, but Phillip Island isn’t about that.
It’s about still having a good tyre on lap 22, so there’s still some work to be done.
Leon Haslam: Our testing has been frustrating at times and in Jerez last month we lost the first day to the weather and the second day with some electronics teething problems.
I think we made more progress in the first three hours here at Phillip Island than in two days in Jerez, so these two tests here have been really important.
We haven’t progressed too much more today because we had a problem with the weather this morning and still had some gremlins with the electronics.
But we’ve found out what the problem is and, even with the bike cutting out intermittently all the way round my best lap this afternoon, I still managed to do a decent time.
We’ve still got more work to do and more things to try but now we go in to Friday looking for a set-up that will make the tyres last on race day.
I’m happy to be in that position and, if all goes well, we can maybe try some of those new things, but the priority now is race set-up and tyres.
Eugene Laverty : “I think we’re ready for the race weekend.
The tyre life is going to be the most important thing, but we’re still a long way from Sunday so we don’t know what the conditions will be.
The Aprilia seems to be working, in my opinion, better than any other bike here for the balance, I’m positive we can start the season with some good results”.
Sylvain Guintoli: “The tests have gone well, over the days I got to know the bike better.
We concentrated most of the work on making the bike fast for the race, which is going to be an issue for many people here.
After this test sessions I feel closer to the bike and closer to my Team and this is really important.
I’m looking forward to the weekend and I’m aiming to put on a good show on Sunday”.
Marco Melandri: “The Phillip Island track is really awesome, it is challenging, fast and flowing.
One thing that makes Phillip Island so special is the atmosphere – and I love these fast corners.
The new tarmac is quite difficult for the tyre and for us riders it is not easy to understand how the grip is.
We had two days of testing with all weather conditions.
Today with the cooler temperatures the track was faster than yesterday and it was easier to ride as the wind was not so strong.
In these two days of testing we completed a lot of work with our RR.
In general I am quite happy with the bike and we have a good base for the first race weekend.
But we have more work to do in two areas where we are still struggling.
We still have issues with tyre wear and we need to improve that for the races.
The second issue is that we’re experiencing chatter, similar to last year’s race weekend at Phillip Island.
We are working on solving that.
Unfortunately my shoulder is still causing me difficulties, and I still feel pain.
I hope that I will feel better on the race weekend.
”Chaz Davies: “Phillip Island is always a challenge not only because the race track is extremely fast but it is the first race of the year and after the winter break it feels like you are going at 500 km/h into the first corner.
It is a really challenging, but great circuit.
I am really looking forward to racing again; it has been quite a while now.
The change of weather conditions over the past two days did not make life easy for us.
I was reasonably happy with the direction we were going with the high temperatures yesterday but then today seems to have changed everything.
In today’s cooler conditions, I had some issues with vibrations that I did not have in the heat.
We will have a look over the data and try to improve it and to understand how the bike is working in such conditions.
In general we are quite well prepared and over the next two days we will analyse what we have done in testing and try to put something together.
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