World championship winning team Kawasaki Racing Team prepare for what will be a challenging season in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, with the first 2018 pre-season test getting underway at Circuito de Jerez this week. With both Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes out on track, Team Manager Guim Roda is hoping for a calm and relaxed testing environment for his riders.

With a lot of work to do before the start of the 2018 season, the team and riders are looking forward to making some strong steps.

Guim Roda (KRT Team Manager): “Of course, we started months ago, but today is the first day. Any result we have scored in the past will not help us to repeat again the same kind of results in the future, so we must put the effort into first gear again. This is the most important period, when all our KRT/Provec staff, KHI engineers and suppliers must work at 100% to start the season at 110%. We combine such a challenging development period with our riders reducing their stress levels after a long and hard 2017 season, preparing to recharge batteries in the next two months. Sure, it is more complex than many fans can see but is a very important part of the year to allow us to go smoothly into next season.”

Tom Sykes adds: “As always I'm really looking forward to getting back out on track on the Ninja. We have a list of items and ideas to work on and after some conversations with the boys I'm very excited and motivated to put some issues to bed. We need to work hard in these winter tests and improve the bike to my needs so we can again see my true speed and potential.”

 Jonathan Rea looks forward to an important week: “I'm super excited to ride again, and Jerez is a good test track and especially in November, when the conditions are balanced. I know how hard the team and the engineers in Japan have been working so I'm intrigued and excited to ride the new specification ZX-10RR. It's very important to gather good data and give clear feedback to my engineers to develop the bike and I feel confident that under the new WorldSBK regulations we can continue to be strong like in the previous years. It's a new era in WorldSBK and we are ready to embrace it and start working to prepare for 2018 in the best way.”

Follow the updates from the WorldSBK Jerez test all with the WorldSBK VideoPass.