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After four full seasons in the FIM World Supersport Championship, Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) is about to make his full-time debut in WorldSBK. WorldSSP 2017 Champion and two-time runner-up, he’s one of the most experienced rookies in 2021 and joins the race-winning Kawasaki Puccetti Racing outfit, a team he graduates to the WorldSBK class with, having spent the last two season winning races for them in World Supersport.

“I started with the 600cc BIKE in the French Championship,” Mahias recalls. I rode well and had the opportunity to make a wildcard in WorldSSP. I did well again and was then called up to do the last event in Qatar. I distinguished myself and I was contacted by Kawasaki to compete in the 2015 season. The team having disappeared along the way, I had two complicated years, but when I knew that Yamaha was returning to WorldSSP with the new YZF-R6… I pushed hard to get this bike. I got there and got a title in 2017.”

"It was difficult to keep the crown, but we fought until the end to finish runner-up,” he adds, talking of the 2018 season, which he ended behind rookie Sandro Cortese. Logically, I was supposed to move to WorldSBK the following year, but for several reasons it didn't happen. So I decided to join Kawasaki because I knew Puccetti had a bike that worked pretty well with Toprak Razgatlioglu in WorldSBK. The goal was to get this place back. So I proved myself and showed that I was motivated by winning aboard a machine that hadn't been successful for a little while. In my opinion, my WorldSSP record is more than positive!”

Mahias has some previous WorldSBK experience; he was called by Lucio Pedercini in 2016 to compete in two rounds but it was far from easy: “I had to start from scratch,” Mahias explains. “The bike has nothing to do with the ones I had ridden in Superstock 1000 or endurance. I trained quite a bit on my stock bike this winter, but it's light years away from a Superbike. I even think it's pretty bad to run too much on a stock.”

“I think we’re the team that has rode the least this winter and I’m one of the ones who need it the most. Due to the health and safety and restrictions linked to COVID-19, the team decided to stay in Italy. Mentally, not riding with others is hard to compare. However, the team does not put any pressure on me. They will give me time to get my bearings and I think mid-season it will be a little easier for me.”

In 2021, Mahias will race the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR, which was unveiled last November at the Jerez test. For now, it's a machine he doesn't yet know. “I have the same bike as the two KRT riders, but I haven't tried it yet! I missed some testing in WorldSBK, but also on the handlebars of the new ZX-10RR. I know that the first races will be a little more difficult.”

Within a very competitive grid, Mahias does not set any specific goals except that of improving himself. But if the opportunity presents itself, he will seize it: "The objective is clear: it will be to improve with every outing. We are not here to set our goals too high, because that is the best way to skip ahead. The goal will be to perfect ourselves for a second season. A podium, I dream of it ... but it will be a bit difficult. There will surely be windows of fire and every opportunity will have to be seized. On that side, I'm not bad and I will be able to do my best to try and aim for a podium.”

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