Ducati confirm how much ballast has been added to Alvaro Bautista’s bike
Ducati have confirmed that six kilos has been added to the two-time WorldSBK champion’s Panigale V4 R.
Alvaro Bautista was not his usual self at the two day Jerez WorldSBK test, finishing 16th while team-mate Nicolo Bulega was top for the second day running.
But the reigning world champion, who has recently overcome injury issues, spent much of the test playing around with the weight changes on his bike.
As part of the new combined minimum weight for rider and bike, Bautista and Ducati needed to add excess weight, and the Italian brand has confirmed exactly how much.
Ducati Corse technical coordinator, Marco Zambenedetti told WorldSBK.com: “It’s quite easy, we’ve added 6kg more or less. Alvaro changed his training system, tried to get a bit more mass. The point is it’s 6kg. About where is a lot more complex.
“We are testing something that moves. First, we’d like to give him back the best feeling. The bike isn’t last year’s bike, we must forget about this, but try to give him a ballast configuration that isn’t so bad.
“We are working on this. We haven’t defined it at this moment. On the other side, we’re also working on engine configuration with fuel consumption and biofuel which is another big, important area to work.”
Zambenedetti also admitted that Ducati has other ideas of how to add weight to Bautista’s bike, so changes could be made at the Portimao test.
“We have a lot of ideas and theories, but we are here just to test this. At this moment, we haven’t got a clear idea which is the best,” added the Italian.
“Before Australia, or in Australia, we will close this experiment and we’ll start to work on a particular configuration. Today, we’re not testing both directions.
“We are improving a bit one direction, but we need to make a double check also in Portimao. It’s important that we have a reference at different tracks.”
