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SBK, Nava: "Ballasting the Ducati? I don't think Bautista won by 20 seconds like in 2019"

“I don't think it's necessary to limit when there have been no overwhelming victories. Alvaro can continue at these levels until 2025. Rea? At Magny-Cours he realised that Bautista and Toprak had more than him"

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Giulio Nava came back to visit us, as guest of our final Live show of November. He did it as a winner, thanks to the World title obtained at Mandalika. For Alvaro Bautista's crew chief, this 2022 was a year to remember in view of the results achieved on the track.

We covered a number of topics, some of which we present here. The first one was obviously the world championship triumph.

“This World Championship is thanks to a fantastic work group - he began - the guys on the team were exceptional, given that the Ducati had no problems and this confirms what was done on the track and in Bologna behind the scenes. Obviously, Alvaro is the one who has to bring us the result, but behind it there was a considerable transversal effort ".

One of the topics addressed was then the discussion linked to the possible ballast that the Panigale V4 risks.

“I know that they were initially talking about this for 2024. What I can say is that I don't see the need to ballast our bike, since I haven't seen races in which one rider gives 25 seconds to the others. There have never been overwhelming victories, where one can say there was no competition. There were often episodes that conditioned the battle for the title, such as the Assen accident between Toprak and Rea or the crashes in Race 1 at Magny-Cours".

On this matter, Giulio then added.

“Personally, I don't see a substantial advantage, also because this argument could also be made for the other riders. In fact, we can see the performance of Kawasaki and Yamaha, where the second riders are one step behind Johnny and Toprak. By comparison, perhaps it was more necessary to intervene at the beginning of 2019, when Bautista won 11 races in a row by a large margin. I haven't seen such an advantage this year."

Speaking of Bautista, Nava thinks the time to hang up his helmet is still far away.

“In my opinion he can still be competitive for another two-three years. At the moment I have not yet seen a downturn phase, also because he is a formidable sportsman, who is already on his feet at 6 in the morning. This means that he is not satisfied yet. For me, he can race until 2024-2025, then it is obvious that there are variables that have an impact ”.

Among the topics we also made reference to the accident in Race 2 at Magny-Cours.

“At that moment, the first thing I thought about was Alvaro's health. Then it is obvious that the riders have their own opinion of what happened. For me it was a reaction foul, even if I never expected something like this from Rea. Johnny was probably nervous, because he was coming from a long period without victories and it wasn't easy to accept seeing his opponents get away. Perhaps at Magny-Cours he realised that Bautista and Toprak had more than him. But this is my interpretation and it is not easy to judge”.

 

  

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