"It hasn’t been an easy two days, but we’ve learned a lot" - Fernandez on his first test days in WorldSBK
Augusto Fernandez is acclimating to the WorldSBK Paddock after two years in MotoGP™, here is what he had to say after his first laps aboard the bike at the Portimao Test event
The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock welcomed Augusto Fernandez (Pata Maxus Yamaha) to the paddock for his first ever WorldSBK event at the test days in Portimao. Fernandez joined the team after Jonathan Rea suffered a several fractures in his left foot after a crash prior to the Australian Round. He remains without an official timeline, but it was announced shortly after Rea returned to Europe that he would miss the Pirelli Portuguese round, hence the arrival of Fernandez.
Rea’s highside crash in Phillip Islands Turn 2 sent his Yamaha R1 cartwheeling down onto his left foot, culminating in the Spanish 2022 Moto2 champion being called in to replace the six-time champion Rea. Fernandez has since been a test driver in MotoGP as well as a grid rider for Red Bull GasGas Tech3 from 2023-2024, his best result coming in his rookie year when he took home a 4th place finish from Le Mans. Only becoming a WorldSBK rider a matter of weeks ago, Fernandez has had his work cut out for him in adapting to the different style of bike, however in testing so far, Fernandez hasn’t been far off pace, so far landing a pair of P13 finishes after the two days of testing in Portimao.
On the differences between the bikes and the things he’s needed to adapt to, Fernandez said “The tires are a big thing, they’re completely different to what I’m used to. Then of course, the bike is different…A lot of things, but I’m getting used to it, I’m happy with the team, I want to thank them for the job they’ve done, it hasn’t been an easy two days but we’ve managed to learn a lot from these days and we’re still not 100% ready for the race, but we will get there.”
The test in Portimao ahead of Round 2’s action was highly anticipated by not only Fernandez who is still acclimating to WorldSBK, but by a grid of teams who didn’t have adequate time to prepare for the season thanks to inclement weather mitigating testing potential in the preseason. Now that these two days are in the books, unfortunately the rain has played a considerable role in the events on-track for Fernandez and the rest of the grid. Rain aside, 27-year-old Fernandez is taking the bull by the horns and accepting the challenge.
“We didn’t have the best of weather, so not a lot of track time, but in the end luckily, we had the last hour. It was an important one because we had some things on our mind that we wanted to try out and to forward the learning process.” said Fernandez “I’m happy how everything went, we managed to improve the lap time at the very end, so I’m happy about that. Now to just continue getting to know the team and trying to get ourselves ready for the race weekend.”
Tune in to see how Fernandez and the Pata Maxus Yamaha team fare in Portimao’s ‘Rollercoaster Round’ March 28-30th with the WorldSBK VideoPass!
