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Alvaro Bautista's 2024 season ended at around 1 pm at Jerez. In fact, the former world champion preferred to keep one day of testing, finishing ahead of schedule. In the standings he occupies fourth place half a second behind Gerloff's Kawasaki, but that matters little.
First of all because the tests have yet to end, later because the priority of the Aruba rider was to work on the bike, focusing on sensations, without going after the flying lap time.
"Today we continued the work we started yesterday - he began - on Tuesday I changed my approach on the bike, in fact I didn't touch anything, keeping a basic set-up, which would allow me to ride better without going in search of performance. I was able to gain confidence and understand a lot of things riding the Panigale. What I did then today made me happy, in fact I have different data to focus on ahead of the long winter."
Alvaro, what is the current situation?
"As I said, I simply asked Ducati for a basic set-up and afterwards we tried to understand what the negative and positive aspects of the bike were. After today I am looking forward to 2025, because I have a different confidence and I will face the World Championship with a different mentality, knowing that we have a lot of data at our disposal."
What is the balance of this recently completed World Championship?
"In this 2024 season I never found what I was really looking for with the bike. Inside, however, I have a lot of motivation to face the coming year in the best possible way. It was certainly an important season that allowed me to learn and grow, where among other things I had to deal with a bad injury."
What can you tell us about the work done?
"In these two days I worked to find a different direction to go. Yesterday the bike didn't feel like mine and today we tried to change some things, allowing me to find myself better. As I said on Tuesday, I was forced to reset everything, kind of like I was a rookie. Inside I had to renew myself or I was destined to go down."
Alvaro, do you think you have enough time to close the gap to Toprak?
"First of all I have to close the gap from the best of the Ducatis and get back to being the best on the track. What I can do at the moment is to extract the maximum potential from our bike, since the new Panigale will only be available in 2026. So at the moment I am only focused on us, because there is no point in thinking about Toprak."
What can you tell us about the Bimota?
"I talked a few months ago with Lowes. On that occasion he told me that the bike was more or less similar to the Kawasaki."
