2023-11-04 14:19:26
Scott Redding was one of the main critics of Álvaro Bautista because of his physique. The English driver believed that the Spaniard’s light weight was one of the reasons why he crushed his rivals race after race, and He was one of the champions of the introduction of the minimum motorcycle-rider weight, which will finally come into play in the 2024 WorldSBK regulations, although with certain nuances.
However, Scott still does not seem happy with the measure itself, or rather, with the ins and outs included in the regulations. The BMW driver confesses that “It sounds great and I’m glad you shed some light on this matter.”, but argues that “reading a little deeper, I was surprised that the ‘minimum’ weight limit is set at 80kg with drivers fully kittedseems to be the perfect middle ground.”
“However“, Redding continues in his argument, “I read a little deeper to understand that if you are under the 80kg limit, You will have an advantage because for every 1 kg that you are below 80 kg you only have to add. 0.5kg”, commented as a prelude.
To which he goes deeper: “This is the interesting part. If a driver weighs 60 kg plus 8 kg of equipment, it equals 68 kg, it means that he would have to add 12 kg to reach the limit of 80 kg“, keep going. And that’s where she wonders, “In this strange situation they only have to add 6 kg, which means that for this pilot the minimum weight limit is 74 kg?
So, it is stated that “That means the minimum weight limit is no longer 80kg. For a pilot who weighs 92 kg with all the equipment on, in this case it would be 12 kg above the 80 kg limit, not 6 kg”.
That led him to send a message to the WorldSBK organization: “I really appreciate you guys making this change, but it is still in favor of the lighter pilots. It’s better than nothing, yes, but it’s still not really fair, is it?” the English pilot threw the question into the air.
Álvaro Bautista is no stranger to this whole story, being the main one affected. On the last day of testing in Jerez, Ducati tested the bike with almost 7 kilos of additional ballast, focusing the work on the 2024 regulations: “We put some weight in some areas of the bike, we also tested inside the engine, and We did a lot of tests to understand how the bike works,” he said.
Read also: Bautista, the first surprised by the speed of his new teammate at Ducati
The conclusions were clear, confirming that yes, this burden is noticeable: “It’s not easy because when the bike works well, if you add 7 kilos, the bike feels different, especially in fast corners. I haven’t noticed any difference in acceleration, I think the inertia I feel in fast corners is greater. Especially here in Jerez, the fast sector, it seemed more difficult to me. But in acceleration, there is not a big difference, also in braking, perhaps there is more inertia to stop the motorcycle”, he said.
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