Denning: 'Durability' of R1 needs to improve, ‘same bike’ will be used in 2022
Pata Yamaha Team Principal, Paul Denning, has stated that both 2021 WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli will have the exact same bike next season.
It’s fair to say the Yamaha R1 was the package to be on during this year’s WorldSBK campaign after three of its four riders finished the championship inside the top seven.
Those riders were Razgatlioglu who brilliantly claimed his first Superbike title - first Turkish rider to ever win a premier class championship too, Locatelli who finished fourth as a rookie, and American rider Garrett Gerloff who took seventh and the Independent riders’ title in the process.
But while it’s true that the Yamaha looked like the more favourable package to be on, Kawasaki and Jonathan Rea still had just as many wins as Razgatlioglu (13), while Ducati had nine in total - Scott Redding (7) and Michael Rinaldi (2) - which shows that the level of competition in WorldSBK is as high as we’ve ever seen it and that gaps are very small.
In fact, it’s those ‘small details’ that will make the difference again in 2022 according to Pata Yamaha Team Principal, Paul Denning, who has confirmed that Razgatlioglu and Locatelli will be on an identical package as this year.
"We've got the same bike, but that's good news as well as bad news because with the same bike and the same two riders, we can work on the small details that make the difference," Denning told the official World Superbike website.
"We will try and give them a slightly better package, improve our durability because in two races we let Toprak down this year.
"I don't expect anything different; I expect Scott [Redding] to adapt well to the BMW, I expect Alvaro [Bautista] who's still a super high-quality rider to be extremely competitive on the Ducati again; that bike will be an absolute missile again with someone as light and small as Alvaro on it.
"BMW are improving, Kawasaki with Jonathan [Rea] and with a fit Alex Lowes will be right there again, so I expect it to be difficult.
"The competition has been relentless and will continue to be. If we can maintain this level, that will be fantastic."
