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The 2022 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship heads for Argentina and the Circuito San Juan Villicum, a technical track with plenty of character. It’s not long since we checked in with Damiano Evangelisti to give us an engineer’s perspective on the week ahead for WorldSBK but a lot has changed for the GRT Yamaha squad since then. Evangelisti’s charge, the Texan Garrett Gerloff, has since been confirmed as a Bonovo BMW rider for 2023 but, arguably, even more importantly he’s put himself back onto the podium. Race 1 in Barcelona was the proof that the star power of Gerloff is still there and that when the dice falls correctly that he can still be a front runner on the world stage. After such a difficult 18 months, it was incredibly important to Gerloff to get back on the box and reward his team for their hard work.

FIRST HURDLE: a good starting position

This weekend in Argentina, the American goes to a track that he has limited experience at. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that his rookie season didn’t feature the end of season flyaway races. As a result, last year was his first tango in San Juan. It was a fruitful round with three top eight finishes proving to be a solid weekend’s work.

To make progress on that one key area has been targetted; Superpole. “The biggest challenge is to get a good position on the starting grid and then to have a strong performance in the Superpole Race,” said Evangelisti. “If you make a mistake in either the Superpole session or race it puts you at a big disadvantage. For us, at the moment, this is our weak point.”

HELPING HAND: the importance of Canepa for Yamaha

For Yamaha, the use of Niccolo Canepa as a rider coach therefore plays a key role over the weekend to make the team tick and get the rider ready for the key moments of the weekend. “Niccolo is a fundamental figure for us,” continues Evangelisti. “He supports the rider and crew chief at the end of each session and the videos that he records on the track help the rider to improve because there is much more data. He also analyses the race simulations from different riders to help us understand the sectors where we are losing time consistently.”

It’s a key role at any race track, but at San Juan, it will be even more important because of how much the track evolves throughout the weekend: “I remember in 2018, the first year we went to San Juan. The track was really dirty on the Friday whereas last year we managed to work well from FP1 onwards. Having the track in good condition from the first laps makes a big difference and hopefully this year, it’s in a condition that will allow us at least to understand the behaviour of the tyres straight away.”

CONCLUDING: top speed on the straight – worth a compromise?

San Juan features one of the longest straights on the calendar but you can’t compromise the rest of the track just to be fast on the straight. The gear ratio, fixed for the season, can be adjusted to improve top speed but that can work against the bike in acceleration and in the slower corners. “We know that on the straight, we suffer a little against Ducati but on this track, some parts that are good to our bike, we will try to make a setup to make the most of this potential. The goal for us is that over the season we continue to grow and make continuous improvements. Garrett has done this and is riding well without making mistakes.”

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