After the thrills and spills of the weekend’s races at Jerez, the Althea BMW Racing team extended their stay in the south of Spain as official WorldSBK testing got underway on Monday. Their riders Jordi Torres, and Markus Reiterberger joined a host of other teams at the Spanish circuit as they worked towards the 2017 season.

“Today we had chance to see what works well on the bike and what doesn’t work,” explained Torres. “We want to better understand what went on this weekend, seeing as the front of the bike seemed to get gradually worse for some reason, something that has happened only here at Jerez. The idea is to continue to collect information and we definitely did this today. We also tested some new parts, some of which worked well, others less so, but overall I’m feeling better and more positive, so it’s been a useful day for sure.”

Torres and Reiterberger made the most of the fair weather conditions to work on the set-up of their BMW S 1000 RR bikes, with Torres putting in 64 laps and Reiterberger 72 throughout the course of the day. Their work focused particularly on the front of the bike, with the riders testing various new components and on the development of certain electronic aspects. By the end of the day, the Althea BMW Racing Team were satisfied with the work they had completed.

“Today went a little better than the race weekend,” said Reiterberger. “We had two bikes to work with, with different settings, so we tested and compared these and worked to find some good solutions. We also tested three new rear tyres that Pirelli brought and also some new parts from Ohlins, as well as some new electronic updates. Once all this is put together I think we can definitely improve the bike. It won’t happen overnight but I think, looking ahead to the winter tests and next year, we’ll be able to find a good direction to take.”

The BMW squad now head back to HQ in Italy for a few days before travelling to the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, where the final round of the 2016 MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship is scheduled to take place over the weekend of 28-30 October.