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Althea BMW Complete Jerez Test

Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:06 GMT

    • Torres focuses on the rear as Reiterberger finds the limit

    Althea BMW have concluded a two day test at the Circuito de Jerez to work on making further progress with the BMW S1000 RR ridden by Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger.
     
    After enjoying a successful Pirelli Aragón Round with Torres tapping into the top 5 for the first time on the machine  in Race 2, the team travelled to the Andalucían circuit and were on track by midday on Tuesday.
     
    “On Tuesday we were able to get out on track from 1pm until 6. We were trying out different settings with the geometry and changing the setup of the bike to see what feeling and data it gave us,” explained Torres to WorldSBK.com. “It's important because during the race weekends there isn't much time and you can't do this kind of testing. This way we can anticipate what problems might appear during a race weekend.”
     
    Torres’ fifth in Aragón was the best position for a BMW so far in 2016, and the Catalan rider made good use of the test by doing an intense 80 laps of Jerez, focuses on improving the rear end of the bike.
     
    “We tried some things out with the rear because it still moves around a lot,” said Torres of the second day on track. “We’ve tried out various different approaches and we’ve made it more stable. In fact, I’ve been able to slide and to exit corners with the bike still leaning, which until now had been impossible. Yesterday we improved the rear a lot and I can now push more on the front, but another day would have been great because when we improve one part of the bike it seems to affect another and we haven't been able to find a balance yet.”
     
    Reiterberger suffered a slightly less productive day interrupted by two crashes. The first was a small incident but the second caused a lot of damage to the bike coming out of Dry Sack, with the young German escaping unhurt.
     
    As well as the WorldSBK duo, Italian Raffaele de Rosa was out on track, from Althea’s STK1000 team. The trio now head north to contest the next Round of the WorldSBK calendar at the legendary TT Circuit Assen.