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Enea Bastianini's adaptation to the KTM RC16 is proceeding in small steps. The rider from Rimini is struggling to adapt his riding style to a bike like the Austrian one, which is based on a completely different philosophy from the Ducati he's been riding for the past four years.
The Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider came in 16th at the end of Wednesday's test in Buriram and was also confirmed as being in line during this second and final day on the Thai track, placing 15th, with a delay of just under a second from the top. This was a demonstration of the difficulties that Bastianini is encountering, forced to once again make a clean slate as he seeks the right direction to follow before the first race of the season.
"This two-day test was very difficult, because we tested so many things and, at one point, I didn't know what to do anymore. Today, I tried to do another reset, start again, and tried to figure out the direction again. Like yesterday, a little something came up at the end, but we're still not there," Enea explained, as he still struggles to find consistency in performance when riding the KTM: "I can't repeat myself This is the most complicated thing at the moment, and I hope we'll find something for the race just in terms of repeatability, which is what we're lacking."
Enea's is an overall problem. He's not just struggling in one single aspect.
"Yes, it's a combination of things because, if I try to brake a little later, I go longer. If I try to brake earlier, I come short. I still don't have clear references. They're what I'm missing, and that complicates things," he admitted. "I knew from yesterday that today was going to be another difficult day but, in the end, I managed to time attack with a decent time compared to what I had done both yesterday and this morning. This means that we progressed."
To resolve this situation definitively, should the rider from Romagna be the one to find a way to adapt to the KTM or should the Austrian manufacturer meet his needs?
"In my opinion, it's something that has to arise from both sides, in the sense that I'm trying to adapt my style to the bike as much as possible. However, it's a style that's still very different. I'll try to do something to make the bike meet what my riding requires a bit but, so far, we've done exactly the opposite, going in the opposite direction than what we had in mind. Good or bad, however, what we've done has worked. If it did, it would be easy. We would just have to do everything the opposite of what we think," he remarked, smiling.
Help for Enea is also coming from the comparison with Pedro Acosta, the rider who can take advantage of the RC16 better than anyone else.
"Acosta is interesting because he can take advantage of this bike one hundred percent. You can see that he's already been riding it for a year and that he has only ridden this bike because, either way, he manages to make a difference from the mid corner to exiting. That's the area where I try to do the distance, while he stops the bike and tries to get it back up," he explained. "We started with opposite and completely different set-ups, because I was trying to continue on my way, but it wasn't leading to anything. So, I started to do a little bit like him and a little something is coming out of it."
