Andrea Locateli needs “to rebuild the feeling with the bike” before WorldSBK 2025 opener
“Step-by-step we are working and looking forward already to being in Portimao…”
Andrea Locatelli was Yamaha’s best-performing rider in 2024, contending for wins in Phillip Island and scoring four podiums during the season; but the Italian has work to do in the remaining days of the off-season.
Locatelli was one of several crashers on the wet second day of last week’s Jerez test, a test he used to begin regaining confidence with the YZF-R1 after a couple of months away from the track over the winter.
“These two days of testing in Jerez looks a bit complicated for the track conditions and the weather conditions, because yesterday was fine but [the wind was strong],” Locatelli told WorldSBK.com.
“We will see, it’s just the first couple of days here in Jerez, we have two more days in Portimao so we’re looking forward [to it].
“We need to rebuild a bit the feeling with the bike, but in any case we are ready to go again, so step-by-step we are working and looking forward already to being in Portimao.”
He added: “Like always we tried to improve around myself and around the bike. For sure we have a lot of things to do. Unfortunately, the testing is short and with these conditions it’s difficult to try and understand what is better.
“So, for the moment, we have a good base that we know, so we will keep working on this and then we will see.
“Phillip Island will be a different track, we know very well the track, last year we were competitive, so we’re looking forward and we believe that we can do well from the start of the season.”
Before the paddock heads to Phillip Island for the final test and the first race, there are two days of testing in Portimao coming up on 28–29 January.
“I hope to find good weather to try to ride a bit more on the bike, to try to get more feeling, because also it is quite a complicated track,” Locatelli said, looking ahead to the test at the Portuguese venue.
“First of all, in this moment of the season, it’s important to ride and to have a good feeling with the bike. The conditions here in Jerez were not so good to make a good job, but in any case we make a lot of laps yesterday, we did a long run even in a difficult situation.
“In any case, we believe that in Portimao we can keep doing our work, we will try to finalise the last couple of things around the bike, and then we will try to prepare the best setting to arrive in Phillip Island ready.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
