MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There is no better setting for Round 1 of the Superbike season than Phillip Island. With the Bass Strait dominating the horizon it offers a truly unique setting. It also all but guarantees that we’ll have classic battles with the drive to the line, a slipstreaming battle separated by thousands of a second...it was just a shame that Nicolo Bulega didn’t get the memo.

Toprak threatens to walk away from WorldSBK

As ever the WorldSBK paddock is centred around Toprak Razgatlioglu. Last year it was for his stunning championship winning upset. This year it’s because the Turkish star is upset.

Coming to Australia it was clear that BMW would be on the back foot. A late change, mid-January, in the regulations saw them unable to capitalise on their former Super Concession status and upgraded chassis parts. The change in regulations was small but incredibly significant; a manufacturer developing a new bike can only use Super Concessions if they are still eligible. In the past BMW would have been able to continue to use the upgrades with their new homologation.

A front row start and podium in Race 1 showed that Razgatlioglu will be at the front as usual this season. A crash during Monday’s test session, a further Free Practice 1 crash, a near miss in the Superpole Race and a technical failure in Race 2 though showed the difficulties that Razgatlioglu faced this week.

For Razgatlioglu the frustration was clear. Punching through his windscreen when re-entering the pitlane to retire from Race 2 showed his emotion. The Turkish star demands a lot from his team but delivers in spades. It will take time for him to feel comfortable on the bike again and while Australia was a tough weekend it wasn’t disastrous.

Speaking to the media after the weekend he didn’t pull his punches. “I want to fight with all the Ducati’s,” said Razgatlioglu. “It’s almost like a Ducati Cup right now but we have a long break of almost one month and we’ll work hard. I’m not surprised that Bulega was fast because he was fast last year. Alvaro was fast too but it’s not normal to have all of the Ducati’s at the front. This isn’t normal and I hope it doesn't continue like this because it’s not enjoyable for anyone. If it continues to be like this I’ll have to think about my future here.”

Is it an empty threat or one that should be taken seriously? Unfortunately for Razgatlioglu he’s a professional motorcyclist and incredibly motivated to race. He showed last year the extent to which he’ll go in his ambitions to race and win. Without an offer on the table to go to MotoGP his threat doesn’t carry that much weight. His frustration is clear and now needs to be channelled into finding solutions.

Chris Gonschor, BMW’s Technical Director, assessed the opening weekend to Speedweek.com and said: “In the Superpole, Toprak's time showed we still have performance. It’s harder to find that performance this year but both riders were strong in Race 1. We have work to do and lessons to learn but luck favours the hard working. Race 1 showed that we still have a good bike. The European tracks will suit us a lot better.”

Ducati Cup or Perfect Storm?

Razgatlioglu’s comments about the hordes of Ducati’s at the front were very accurate. The Panigale V4R was the bike to beat all week in Australia. The red machines swarmed to the front and every Ducati rider had sessions where they looked strong. Ultimately the weekend was capped off by a Ducati top six in Race 2.

It was clear that the bike worked well. That being said, was Australia the perfect place for this to happen? Nicolo Bulega is fantastic at the track. Alvaro Bautista has dominated race meetings here in the past. Andrea Iannone led a MotoGP race here. Scott Redding was rejuvenated by switching from BMW to Ducati. Danilo Petrucci was a form rider in the second half of the season. Sam Lowes had the best results of his WorldSBK career. Yari Montella claimed three of his WorldSSP victories at the track.

A strong rider line-up certainly helps Ducati. The bike does too. It can be true that it is the best bike on the grid without it dominating; Razgatlioglu showed this last year. If after the Dutch Round at Assen the Turkish rider is still being outclassed by the red bikes then we should be worried about the balance of power on the grid.

First hat-trick for Bulega

Bulega looks set to force Ducati’s hand about the future of Alvaro Bautista. Coming to Australia the talk of the paddock was how the Italian was now the dominant rider for the Bologna squad. Bautista might have two titles and 63 victories under his belt for Ducati but he is not their title contender.

The Australian venue has previously been a place where Bautista has dominated race weekend’s. Now that form belongs to the Number 11 and Bulega won’t be keen to give it up. Bautista rode well in Australia and was getting faster and faster as the weekend progressed. Ultimately he never looked like having an answer to his teammate’s speed.

A first career hat-trick for Bulega was his reward and the Italian holds a commanding championship advantage with 1 of 12 Rounds completed. The Italian will know that this weekend won’t be the norm but that you have to strike when the iron is hot in WorldSBK. That being said the even keel of Bulega’s mentality was jarring to many inside the paddock.

"That's just how I am,” explained Bulega about his mentality. “I don't go crazy or freak out. My thoughts are already on Portimão because things will be different there. The Ducati works brilliantly at Phillip Island and I like the track. I knew that I could achieve my best results here. It’s not possible to be at this level on every racetrack.

"I had an excellent feeling on Monday and it continued to improve until Sunday. Everything went perfectly this week but I knew that anything could happen in the race. In the Superpole Race I was very lucky when Toprak braked too late. I did enter the corner perfectly either and that was a bit of luck in this case. To have a weekend like this you need to be fast, the team has to work perfectly but you also need to have a bit of luck."

Bulega’s weekend of dominance was one where he was out of sight of the pack but never far from their mind. If he can bring this pace to Europe he has thrown down a massive marker to Toprak and the rest of the field.

Redding is back!

It’s hard to think of a rider who has had more second chances in his career than Scott Redding. The British rider has had to open some doors for himself in recent years, winning the British Superbikes championship to springboard himself to the World Championship, but his move from BMW to Ducati machinery has reinvigorated him.

The Bonovo squad’s decision to switch brands was immediately justified by a superb weekend for Redding. Three top five finishes showed consistency and he only missed out on a Superpole Race podium by half a second. It’s easy to discount the showings of the Ducati riders at Phillip Island, such was the pace of the Panigale, but it would be unwise to do so with Redding.

The Ducati is the bike he needs to be successful. He is firmly in put up or shut up territory this season and the motivation that he lacked last year has returned in spades. Redding has a genuine chance to win races this year.

"I’ve got everything I want and need this year,” said Redding at the end of the weekend. “There’s no excuses now. Last year I couldn't do anything with the bike but now I can do whatever I want. It's so much easier for me. The Ducati suits Phillip Island so it’ll be interesting to see where we are at other tracks.

“This week I’ve been comparing myself to Bulega because he’s the best here. I know how I should look compared to Petrucci’s data. Iannone and Bulega were doing some things better than me but I'm better in areas too. I’ve trying to adapt to do the things they do well but I think their setup allows them to ride the apex of the corners differently than I can. This means they can come out of the corners better."

They might come out of the corners better but no-one made a bigger comeback to the front of the field than Redding this weekend.

Bimota is back on the grid

The return of Bimota to the WorldSBK grid was one that excited many. Their performances in Australia left a slightly underwhelming impression to some. This was due to their speed in winter testing but overall Australia was a positive weekend.

Axel Bassani is now much closer to his teammate Alex Lowes and the duo made no mistakes to clock up good results on a tricky season opening weekend. Bimota arrived in Australia with the bike slightly undercooked. This was due to European weather not playing ball in January and the team had limited mileage compared to where they would have wanted to be.

If they were undercooked arriving in Australia the scorching temperatures certainly seared them on Saturday. On a day with 37C ambient temperature the track was registering 55 °C for most of the race. Finding grip with a new package was difficult for Bimota but they were able to gain a lot of data and information. Over the course of six starts for both riders they walked away with six top ten finishes; a bright start considering the challenges.

"We improved the bike over the course of the weekend and the races were solid,” said Lowes. “We finished in the places we had expected this weekend. I didn't have the confidence in the bike to fight and I didn't have the opportunity to overtake. I was stuck behind Andrea Locatelli for the entire Race 2. He didn't make any mistakes but I was in the position where I was faster but I couldn't get past him. If I look at the big picture though, it was a good week."

Bimota are struggling for top speed and with the hot temperatures they clearly weren’t as comfortable on the edge of the tyre. There’s work to be done but for a starting point it was a good base for the coming rounds.

Yamaha brings in Augusto

Andrea Locatelli, a Phillip Island specialist, finished the three races 7-6-7 which showed exactly where Yamaha are at right now. The YZF-R1 is good but not quite good enough. With Jonathan Rea ruled out of action through injury Locatelli was always likely to be the leading Yamaha rider in Australia and he lived up to his expectations.

For Yamaha though the weekend was another example of the challenges they’ll face this year. Standing trackside the bike looked a handful on the entry to Stoner Corner. Riders were having to wrestle it down the hill on the entry and it was clear it wouldn’t be an easy weekend. Afterwards Locatelli said that “I have to be happy because I gave my maximum and made no mistakes. This was the best we could do so we’ll have to look at the data and understand why it was different this year compared to last year.”

With Rea ruled out of action for Portimão his place will be taken by Augusto Fernandez. The Spaniard will return to the WorldSBK paddock for the first time since 2015. That year he was a coming star of the paddock. As the reigning European Junior Cup champion he moved to the Superstock 600 series. Razgatlioglu was a comfortable champion but Fernandez won the final race of the season.

Fernandez was announced during a private MotoGP test at Sepang. He knows that his day job is in the Grand Prix paddock but a strong performance in Portimão will certainly do him no harm in offering a future in the WorldSBK paddock.

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