Loris Cresson (OUTDO Kawasaki TPR) – der junge Franzose war wenig begeistert vom nasskalten Wetter in Andalusien. Der Nachfolger von Sandro Cortese in Lucio Pedercinis Team hofft auf trockenere Verhältnisse am morgigen zweiten Testtag (© WorldSBK).

Bad luck with the weather at the WorldSBK tests on day 1

The rain had been predicted and unfortunately the prognosis turned out to be correct. Except HRC Honda MotoGP rider Stefan Bradl, we already reported at noon today that no one had rolled out of the pits until then. The weather didn’t cooperate on the first official day of testing, so besides the German only WSSP 600 rookie Leonardo Taccini was on the track. The young Italian drove 20 laps during the day. The WorldSBK riders were present on the first day but all decided not to go out on the track given the difficult conditions and limited test days available. Team HRC, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK and ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati were all present at the test with various new parts to try out but stayed in their respective garages all day due to the weather.

Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati) with a lot of time for his smartphone. He missed the November test the previous year because Ducati incomprehensibly did without it and on the first day the Englishman was doomed to inactivity (© WorldSBK).

The first photos of Tito Rabat and his new work tool

The Moto2 World Champion from 2014 with his Ducati Panigale V4R, used by the Barni Racing Team for 2021. The Catalan is something of a secret favorite for the coming season and you should definitely not underestimate him (© WorldSBK).

The Further test program

Jerez test: 20th – 21st January
Portimao test: 4th – 5th March
Jerez test: 9th – 10th March (Honda only)
Misano test: 15th – 16th March
Estoril test: 24th – 25th March
Barcelona test: March 31st – 1st April
MotorLand Aragon test: April 12th – 13th

Provisional & incomplete WorldSBK calendar 2021

Since, as in MotoGP (except Spielberg/Austria), there is still no advance ticket sales, a lot of changes are to be expected. We already described all overseas races in both world championships as very questionable over two months ago. It all looks as if we should be right again, like in the 1st lockdown almost a year ago. At that time we had already announced in March 2020 that there would be no races before midsummer.