At the end of last year, following the dramatic FIM Superstock 1000 Cup title win, Barni Racing decided to make the step up to World Superbike for what would have been the team’s first season in the series. Therefore, Leandro Mercado and the Marco Barnabo-run outfit are having to spend more time collecting raw data about the race tracks than other teams, which arrive at every circuit with plenty of information from past seasons.

“It was a very difficult weekend,” Mercado says of Assen, where he finished 11th in Race 1 and 14th in Race 2, having qualified tenth on the grid.

“We had some problems on Friday, so we changed the bike a lot and it improved. For us, every race is new. We don’t have any data from the past. This experience is all new for everybody, so it is difficult but positive.”

Explaining the second race in more detail, the Argentinean continued:

“Both races were difficult, but I’m happy with the second one because I was quicker and there was less of a gap to the winner. I had very good pace until Lap 18, when the rear tyre dropped off, so that was a bit difficult and I made a few mistakes. It was a shame because I was tenth and, with two mistakes, I finished 14th. But this is World Superbike and we know what we have to improve.”

The next stop on the 2015 WorldSBK trail is Imola in Italy, where in Superstock 1000 last year Mercado collected a podium finish: one of four from seven races in 2014.