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The 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s fourth round is in the history books and it was another stunning round from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With rivals clashing, old foes returning to battle and major milestones achieved, the media debriefs were busy on Sunday evening. 2024 talk, testing demands, unexpected struggles and in-depth race reflection all feature in this week’s hot headlines.

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati): “We’re stronger than ever”

A second consecutive triple for Alvaro Bautista, who talks about the feeling of this moment in his career and how it’s different to his first year in Ducati: “I feel very good now and very strong. It’s what I said last year, that I feel in one of my best moments of my career. I still have this feeling. I like the training and preparation at home, not only physically and at the moment I love it, to be a better rider. I can keep racing. But I think one day, as a rider, I’ll think that I don’t want to do it continue, but for now, I love it. In 2019, I made mistakes and we made technical mistakes as the bike was also new, such as trying things that we kept in the wrong way. All together, lost the Championship, but now, we’re stronger than ever.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK): “I’m very happy for Bahattin… it gave me extra motivation”

Three second places for Toprak Razgatlioglu in Barcelona but a first win in WorldSSP for fellow countryman Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), praise was handed out from one #54 to the other: “I’m very happy for Bahattin and in Indonesia, I was very happy for Can. Also Deniz Oncu is very strong and we’re waiting for him as the others are winning! All of Kenan’s riders are very strong with wins and podiums. I hope one day that we are all World Champions one day in all the categories. In general, for Sunday, I am very happy for Bahattin and I think for me, it gave me extra motivation to be second in Race 2.”

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati): “I don’t know what happened to his brain… it’s a dirty move, he lost more than me”

Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s wasn’t happy with Axel Bassani on Saturday after their clash: “On the first flying lap, Axel tried to overtake me, and I was a little bit surprised because, during practice, he was pretty slow compared to the top group. Maybe he wanted to do some parts of the race in front. If you see his time at the end of the race, it’s pretty bad compared to the top. Because he’s an Independent rider and I’m a factory rider, he has more fight to overtake me. I re-overtook him and when I did that, there was room. We touched, it was a hard overtake from me, but clean. That means the rider doesn’t lose time, the rider doesn’t crash, and the rider doesn’t go to the green. I don’t know what happened to his brain because, after I overtook him, I rode well. He ran into me on purpose because you can do this if you think ‘I want to make him crash’. He made me crash. There was no space. It’s not a place you can overtake, and you don’t think there’s someone on the outside. He knows what he did. I fell on the ground. He didn’t have the face to come and say sorry which makes him even worse. We see many times with Toprak, Alvaro and Jonny touch each other but they never do this. It’s a dirty move. I think he lost more than me.”

Speaking on Sunday, Rinaldi reviewed his weekend: “It’s been one of the toughest weekends; after Free Practice and you have expectations but then, in Race 1, you crash after two laps and then the rain comes in the Superpole Race, you say ‘why always me?’, but you have to face it like a professional rider. I can be quite happy about how we faced the two hard punches in the face after Race 1 and the Superpole Race. I had no card to play against Toprak.”

Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing): “Michael’s a normal rider like the rest of the grid; if he has a problem with me, he can come to my box and we can speak”

On the other side, Axel Bassani finished P7 after the Race 1 clash, and he had a different view: “He tried to overtake me and touched me. After, I tried to overtake him to stay in second position. I think we had the potential to be on the podium. We touched; I think it’s a normal racing incident. Sometimes it happens. I had my penalty and I finished in seventh position, so I think it’s okay. I saw the possibility to make an overtake so I went in. He tried to close the door to defend his position. I think it’s a normal contact in racing. I repeat, I had penalty, I did it, that’s it. He made the same overtake in Turn 3, this is racing. Every rider tries to put in 100% every lap and tries to defend their position. He tried to defend his position in Turn 3, and I tried to at Turn 10. I think it’s a normal contact. I don’t have problems with Michael. For me, he’s a normal rider like the rest of the grid. If he has a problem with me, he can come to my box and we can speak.”

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK): “It’s encouraging that Alex had a great race”

A costly Superpole Race error on the final lap meant Race 2 was a long road to recover for Jonathan Rea: “I touched the white line; when Toprak came by, I felt quite close and I wasn’t aiming at the corner. He gave me space but at 320km/h, with the wind buffeting, it knocked me around a little bit, hit the white line and it was enough to put me down. It’s really frustrating as it was a complete knock-on effect for Race 2. I had to clear traffic at the beginning; the Hondas in the first laps were buzzing around. I was attacking them, they were attacking me; then Locatelli was really good, in the final sector he was much faster than me and better getting onto the straight. Everywhere else, I was able to catch him but in doing that, I was abusing my tyre. When I had clear track to Alex and Toprak, I thought the race would come to me but they kept going. I totally burnt too much tyre in the early laps. We made a small change from Saturday and finished the race with a lot more rubber in Race 1, so the small modification to use more tyre wasn’t the right direction. Although it’s frustrating that I couldn’t catch them, it’s encouraging that Alex had a great race. It’s a very tough track for tyres and we were able to compete for podiums. It’s not the weekend we dreamed but it was better than expectations on Friday.”

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK): “We need to test when the track is at 50 degrees”

With a test at Misano looming large, Alex Lowes isn’t expecting the conditions to be ideal for improving the ZX-10RR’s weak points: “I was looking at the weather for the test and it looks like it could be wet; I don’t need to practice in the wet, I’m pretty good. If it’s not wet, then it will only be maximum 17 degrees, so we’ll go out, keep the bike the same and be as fast as anyone. When we have grip, the bike looks unbelievable and you can’t complain about it. We need to test when the track is at 50 degrees, because then we see that we really struggle. Then, you need to understand how to improve it. The real issue is that we never really test at those temperatures; in the winter, it’s never warm enough and everything works amazingly. We bring new stuff for the bike and if it doesn’t improve the bike, we’ll go back to the base setting. But maybe, if the track was 50 degrees, the new things we have to try could be a lot better.”

Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK): “The feeling is try to continue with Yamaha”

Talking about 2024, Andrea Locatelli is calm so far: “Honestly, I am so happy in Yamaha; when I came here in the first year in 2021, we learnt and improved in every race. I signed for two more years until 2023 as I loved the project and Yamaha were interested to help me and believe in me. In this moment, I am happy about my bike. For sure, we need to improve a little bit on the power but in the end, the balance is not so bad and we’re always working to improve the bike. In every race, we see that one manufacturer has an opportunity. In this time of my career, I am young enough to learn a lot and my target is to win or at least fight for wins and podiums. Honda is a good bike, Kawasaki too, they can improve but we can improve our bike too. The feeling is try to continue with Yamaha.”

Xavi Vierge (Team HRC): “We struggled more than expected… we came home with a top six”

After much hope for Honda, Barcelona wasn’t the perfect homecoming for Xavi Vierge, but a top six on Sunday was strong: “Finally, Race 2 has been good for us and we can show our potential. We expected more from the weekend, but we struggled more than we expected. Also, on Saturday, we had red flags which made our day more difficult and in Superpole, we didn’t react in the best way, and also in Race 1. Anyway, we did a good job and made changes for Sunday to give me more room to push. I think it’s been a solid Sunday and we came home with a top six. Our situation is that we have some potential, but our window is quite small. So, it depends on the track, grip levels and weather. At the test, the grip was amazing, and everyone went so fast and straight to the 1’41s. This weekend, the grip was much lower and we struggled more than testing.”

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