Poor Portimao weather presents an opportunity to Andrea Locatelli, Yamaha

Andrea Locatelli was able to utilise the poor conditions at the recent Portimao WorldSBK test to work on an area specific to the upcoming 2025 season opener in Australia.

While Tuesday afternoon was largely dry in Portimao, Wednesday was affected by rain almost throughout.

“[Tuesday] was not a bad day and we just focused on riding the bike, understanding if all the things we tried in Jerez were fixed,” Locatelli said.

“So, more or less, we are happy; it was a difficult winter [for the] conditions, so we don’t ride too much, but the feeling is not so bad.

Like last year, this year’s Phillip Island race will be subject to compulsory pit stops as a result of concern over tyre durability. Locatelli and Yamaha decided to take advantage of the mixed conditions in Portimao to consider “strategies” for this aspect of the Phillip Island race that will be exclusive to the Australian Round.

“It will be compulsory this year [at Phillip Island], so they [the team] want to try many different strategies for the pit stop,” Locatelli said after doing some pit stop practice on the second day in Portimao.

“It looks like everything is working, so we just need to be ready and I just need to go fast.”

Before the race at Phillip Island there is one final two-day test, with Locatelli aiming to first digest everything he has tried since the first day of testing in Jerez in order to develop a plan for the final winter test of 2025.

“Now we have a couple of weeks to understand what we tried in Jerez and Portimao, so after this couple of weeks the Yamaha staff will understand what is necessary to try again and what not [to try],” he said.

“At the moment, we don’t have a million things to try– fortunately, because also we don’t want to make a lot of confusion.

“So, we just try to arrive in Phillip Island with the best solution we have and we try to go as fast as possible.”