Scott Redding | Photo credits: Ducati
Four months have passed since the first round of the 2020 WorldSBK season held at Phillip Island, Australia. The restrictions due to the outbreak of Covid-19 had forced the championship to come to a halt. On Tuesday afternoon, the season resumed with the loud and familiar engines of the Ducati Panigale V4 R. Riders Scott Redding and Chaz Davies regained the grip of their bikes and graced the first laps on the new asphalt of the Misano World Circuit.
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders carried out two intense days of testing which ended today offering extremely positive data. Scott Redding was the best among the WSBK riders with being only 135 thousandths of a second off the fastest MotoGP rider. Chaz Davies also managed to complete 177 laps throughout the three testing days.
“These were three very positive days as it was important to regain the feeling with the bike. We have worked a lot especially with used tyres and we have tried new solutions that have given positive feedback. I’ve been working out a lot these months with the goal of losing weight. In the end, I also managed to set a good chrono but this is not important. It was great to get back to work with the guys and I can’t wait to get back on track”.
“It was nice to get back out there and see a lot of familiar faces. It has been a long four months and there was a great desire to reconnect with the bike and the track. We worked a lot to try many solutions and get some important feedback. We have improved in some areas and we have to improve in other aspects but the direction is the right one”.
“I am very satisfied with these three days of testing as we were able to test – with Redding and Davies – some new parts and technical solutions we tried a month ago on this circuit with Pirro and Rinaldi. We had good feedback from the riders on the new ergonomics. Also, we re-tested some of the solutions we tried in Australia and there are still some others to try out, especially from an electronic point of view. We will be able to do it before the race weekend at Jerez”.
“We were looking forward to getting back to work and this test was taken with great enthusiasm. They have been three very important days for the riders and the whole team, also to get familiar with the new protocols that we will have to follow in the next rounds. Our season will start again: it will be shorter but at the same time, it will be very intense. As always we will give our best to get the best possible result”