Alvaro Bautista identifies area to improve after Jerez WorldSBK Race 1 double crash

Alvaro Bautista crashed twice in WorldSBK Race 1 at this weekend’s WorldSBK Spanish Round, but there was still value in the race for the Spaniard.

Bautista’s poor Saturday started in Superpole, where a lack of speed left him down in 15th on the grid, and continued into Race 1 where he crashed twice.

“It hasn’t been the best day of my life,” Bautista conceded when speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in Jerez.

“I could not make a good lap time in the Superpole. I didn’t have the confidence on the bike to push, I cannot ride the bike as I wanted, like yesterday.

“In the race, I did more or less a good start, and I crashed in the second lap and I don’t know exactly why.”

Bautista got back on after his first crash and carried on in the race to try to understand how he can improve.

“Then, I don’t have much damage to the bike and I can continue the race — basically because we need to understand how to improve, how to give me the confidence to ride, and today I made some tests during the race, trying different things to see where we need to improve.

“The good thing is that I understand many things. The pace was not too bad, sincerely, it was [good] enough to do a podium, easy.

“But, for me it was important to understand better. I think I had a lot of conclusions from the race, from my feeling, from the data.

“For sure, I’m not happy because I crashed twice, but I’m happy because I learn and I gave a lot of information to my team.

“We will try to improve in the areas that I need, and tomorrow we can make some tests, but at least now I have a better idea of the points we need to improve.”

Bautista continued, explaining more specifically the area he feels he needs to improve after Race 1 in Jerez.

“I think now I have a better idea that we need to improve in some areas that, for sure, if we can make a step there, then the rest is coming a bit easier,” he said.

“Especially, we need to improve the entry of the corner. I knew that I struggled with the rear grip, but, in reality, this weekend I understood that the rear grip, exiting from the corner, is a consequence of the entry.

“Definitely, we need to improve that area, the entry of the corner, and we will try to do it.”

Bautista’s relatively poor feeling in Jerez follows something similar in Estoril last weekend. These two rounds come after Bautista’s 2024 season peaked in Aragon, where he won two races.

Those wins came after a period of improvement for Bautista that began at the Czech Round during the summer, but Bautista explained that the poorer feeling he’s had in Estoril and Jerez does not undermine the progress he felt he made in Most.

“From Most to here, we took a step forward with the feeling,” he said.

“The problem is it depends also on the conditions if we are stronger or less stronger. We need to be stronger in all conditions — you can be faster or slower, but not with one race stay on the top and with another struggle to be on the podium.”