At a recent test for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, team managers from factory teams in WorldSBK were on hand to preview the upcoming Pirelli Dutch Round at the TT Circuit Assen. Every factory team has cause for optimism heading into the Dutch Round as the season resumes, with high hopes and optimism up and down the grid at the first European round of 2023.
Ducati come into the Dutch Round on the back of five wins out of six in 2023, all through Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) but his teammate, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, has shown strong pace this season. Bautista has three wins at Assen, all with Ducati in 2019 and 2022, while Rinaldi has a podium there. Discussing Ducati’s chances at Assen, Team Manager Serafino Foti, said: “The feeling for the round in Assen is good but at the same time peculiar. It’s the first European round and it’s a bit like the first race of the championship. It will be a very demanding round where our rivals will undoubtedly be extremely competitive, as they have always been in previous years. It will be a great battle and I expect a close fight, but we go in the knowledge that we can do well and that we have everything we need to fight for victory. We expect as we did in both Australia and Indonesia, to fight for the top positions with both riders. Alvaro is a guarantee and Michael, after changing his approach, has grown a lot in terms of speed. Our goal is to be extremely competitive with both Bautista and Rinaldi.”
The Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK team have had good results in the past at Assen with both Toprak Razgatlioglu scoring four podiums in six races with Yamaha and Andrea Locatelli taking two and never finishing outside the top five in WorldSBK at Assen; a record he also has in the 2023 season from Australia and Indonesia. Team Principal Paul Denning said: “We should be competitive. We were leading the race last year before the incident with Jonathan. Loka’s scored podiums every time we’ve been there. The Ducatis are going to be incredibly strong. It’s one of Alex’s favourite tracks on the Kawasaki and Jonathan’s obviously a legend around there. You need to be on top of your game to even sniff a podium. Our lads are second and third in the Championship and we’ve won a race and we’d like to win another one. There’s no reason we can’t do that at Assen if we get everything right from FP1 onwards. A win has to Locatelli’s target, the next step in his self-belief and I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t aim at that and try to achieve it.”
Team HRC head into the Dutch Round knowing it is the scene of their only podium in 2022, courtesy of Iker Lecuona, while teammate Xavi Vierge took his first WorldSBK podium last time out in Indonesia. Two strong tests for Honda followed after the Indonesian Round and Team Manager Leon Camier is hopeful heading into Assen. He said: “It’ll be interesting. Let’s see how we fare. I don’t think it’ll be too bad a track, especially for Iker. Having said that, they were both, last year, more or less matching each other. We need to be able to qualify a little bit better than we have been lately. It’s something we understood with the direction we went in maybe wasn’t helpful for Superpole but was better over race distance, especially for Iker. Let’s see. If we have a good Superpole, I think we can be optimistic for Assen. I think we can be quietly optimistic.”
Kawasaki have had a tough start to the season with two podiums, shared equally between Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and teammate Alex Lowes, but the former is the most successful rider ever at Assen with 17 wins to his name, more than any other rider at any other circuit. Could Assen mark a turning point in Kawasaki’s season? Team Principal Guim Roda said: “With the way the rules are done now and our base bike is from 2011 with some improvements over the years, we always need to maximise our best, take the maximum profit from all details and when all those details are not properly aligned, we suffer a bit more. We need to pay a lot of attention to not leave anything missing and do our best. I think it’s a circuit that both riders like a lot and both riders performed well in the past. We need to check how much others improved their performance. Honda looks like they’ve made a step here and at MotorLand, so we need to see what’s going on.”
It has also been a tough start to the season for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team but will have some optimism heading into the Dutch Round. It’s the scene of Scott Redding’s first top-five finish with BMW in 2022, while Michael van der Mark knows the circuit like the back of his hand and has seven podiums on home soil. Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director, previewed Assen and said: “We are looking forward to kick off the European season at Assen. The TT Circuit is always a very special place, not just due to the facts that we have the local hero Michael van der Mark and I am Dutch, too. The history, the atmosphere and the passionate fans are just amazing. We used the break since Indonesia to further improve our new BMW M 1000 RR. Our aim is to build on the progress we have seen in Mandalika and to close the gap to the front with all four riders, Michael, Scott Redding, Garrett Gerloff and Loris Baz, who prepares to race at Assen after he fractured his leg in Indonesia. Of course, we also have to wait and see what weather conditions Assen has to offer, but we need to be best prepared for dry and wet.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com