Danilo Petrucci slower with new tyre - ‘this is quite a big problem’

After making headlines for his standout performance on day-one of the Jerez test last week, Petrucci endured a much tougher time of it during the two-day Portimao WorldSBK test. 

Last of the Ducati riders, Petrucci concluded the final day of action with a best time of 1:41.439s, which was fifth best in terms of rookies as Remy Gardner, Dominique Aegerter, Bradley Ray and Lorenzo Baldassarri all finished ahead of the former MotoGP rider.

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While extracting performance from a new tyre was still an issue, albeit to a much smaller degree in Jerez, Petrucci felt as though the problem became a glaring issue in Portimao which led to the Italian struggling to find the ‘correct riding style’ for his Panigale V4 R. 

Speaking about the test to WorldSBK.com, Petrucci said: "Yeah we had plenty of things to do in these two days of testing - one of them was to find a good set-up, find a good base. 

"We tried many different solutions but I haven’t found something that really suits my riding style here because the main problem is that when I put the new tyre the situation gets worse and I’m slower compared to the used tyre. 

"This is quite a big problem. I’m still looking for the correct riding style for this bike and for this tyre. 

"Then we had the chance to ride the last session with the 2023 bike and it’s a little bit better, but still we have a long way to go."

While generating pace with a new tyre was a clear goal for Petrucci and Barni Ducati to improve, so was acceleration on corner exit.

However, this too was a problem for Petrucci who admitted he lost confidence when needing to really attack.

"In Jerez we were quite fast but the acceleration was not so good so we started working on that side,” stated Petrucci. “But we haven’t found anything that really works and especially I lost the confidence to go in with a lot of brakes, a lot of speed. 

"It was good to have these two days of testing because we removed from our list a lot of doubts but still we don’t have a certain set-up that we know really works."