News

Once the summer break is over, WorldSBK will blast back into action with the final four race meetings of the season packed into a period of eight weeks.

The first two of those four events will be at the Lausitzring in Germany and Magny-Cours in France; prior to both of these fixtures, the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team will test at the respective venues of Klettwitz and Nevers.

“We have some chassis items to test and also some electronic developments,” explains Ian Prestwood, Crew Chief to Alex Lowes.

“We will also be working on a base setting for these tracks to improve our performance when we arrive there for the race weekends. One of the main challenges we have faced this year is the lack of data at each new circuit, as this is the first year the WorldSBK-spec YZF-R1 has competed, so to have the opportunity to test at both Lausitzring and Magny-Cours before the races is really important to us.”

The Lausitzring test will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 August as several WorldSBK riders take to the track with their counterparts from the German national championship; this test will consist four individual 40-minute sessions across the two days. The Magny-Cours test will then follow on Monday 5 September, the same day as a press conference promoting the following week’s WorldSBK round.

Despite the general lack of testing for the new YZF-R1 under WorldSBK technical regulations, Prestwood stresses that much progress has already been made:

“The chassis has evolved a lot over the first part of the season and is starting to settle into a good working area, especially since Misano. The electronics are also an area of constant development and where we have found some good improvements recently.”

Ian Prestwood has been a motorcycle mechanic for over 25 years. 2016 marks his debut season in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, having previously worked alongside Lowes to claim the British Superbike title together in 2013.