You are here

SBK, Iannone: "I'm keeping my feet on the ground, this year will be more difficult."

"We have arrived at a good level and we will do a lot to improve further, but in my opinion the bar will be raised further in 2025 and we will have to see if the weapons we have are enough."

SBK: Iannone:

Tonight in Limone Piemonte, in the province of Cuneo, Andrea Iannone presented the new livery that will feature on his Ducati V4 in 2025, the Abruzzese rider's second season as the standard bearer of the Go Eleven team in World Superbike. After a debut year in which they immediately placed among the protagonists of the championship, there is certainly no shortage of expectations for Iannone and the team from Cherasco, ready to give their all so as not to betray expectations.

Eager to return to action, Iannone already took to the track earlier this month for a training session in Portimao. "It was very cold, even compared to last year, when I was there in November, and it didn't go well weather-wise, because on the second day it virtually poured the whole time," the 35-year-old said during the team's presentation. "It was a bit of a wasted trip, but putting miles on a bike is always nice."

What will change from last year? "Last year I came from many years away from racing, I found a team that was formed and that I now know. Although actually two figures have changed, one of them being the electronics guy, and we know how much electronics is a very important aspect in our world and in our championship. We will see if it will be an advantage or not. I don't know what to expect, because he is someone I don't know and have never worked with. But I hope that we will be able to have an important tuning, work well right away, and have the performance that we all expect," replied Andrea, who is aware of the steps forward and the challenge that awaits him in 2025.

"I'm keeping my feet on the ground, because in my opinion it will be an even more difficult year than last year. Although now I definitely have more experience: I know circuits that I practically didn't know last year; I know how the format works and what awaits me during a race weekend. We'll see," he continued, "People expect good results, also because we will have important support and backing. I hope so, and on our part we have done everything we can. We will see our potential when I get to the track in Jerez and especially in the first race."

In the past, it has been seen that some former MotoGP riders, such as Max Biaggi or Carlos Checa, needed a few years before they were able to fight for the title in Superbike. That is also why Iannone does not want to make predictions about when he will be ready to go after the World Championship.

"I don't feel like I want to talk about the championship, it takes too many things that at the moment I don't know if we have. In Jerez we will find out how the team works," he underlined, "Last season we grew during the year and we got to the last part of the championship where I was calmer in certain aspects. Especially in Jerez. But as I said, some new people will arrive, so we'll see how it will be. Obviously, to aim for a championship you need a consistency that we didn't have last year for various reasons. Like knowledge of the tracks, lack of experience on the bike and data from the previous year that we could use to figure out what set up to start with once we got to the track. This year we have data and the luck of not having a new bike. So on paper it should be better, but in my opinion it will raise the bar some more. I'm keeping my feet on the ground. I know the team expects a lot and I also expect a lot from them, so we'll see where we can be at the end of 2025. After the first three or four races we will understand what we can aspire to as a team, because things are always done as a group."

The Abruzzo rider and his team are aiming to take another step forward after a 2024 in crescendo, but the competition is looking fierce.

"There will again be the official BMW and Ducati. The Yamahas will improve a little bit and there will be more Ducatis on the track. Bimota will come in with the new bike, which will have Superconcessions. Honda improved last season and will definitely have worked this winter. It will all be a little bit more than last year," Iannone noted, "We will likely have the 2024 bike and we will have to figure out how we can handle certain things and how fast we will be during the weekend. Last year we always had a progression and in Race 2 we were always very close, but at that point it's too late because the weekend is over. We'll see. At the tracks where we tested we always went very strong and in Aragon we won in Race 1. We got to a good level, we will do a lot to improve and we will see if the weapons we have will be enough."

 

Translated by Julian Thomas

Related articles

 
 
Privacy Policy