“We have had two extensive tests with four hours on Monday, and four hours on Tuesday. We have lots of data to analyze, which is what we are doing at the moment. One lap qualifying pace is a struggle for us to find at this circuit at the moment, but our race simulations are more positive, so we are in a reasonably good position. I think it’s clear to see the depth and quality of the field this year has got to be the best it has been in the World Superbike history, so we have got a challenge to be in the mix at the very front, but preparations have gone well and we are now ready for action. Our overall improvements need to be measured over a number of races, so we will see a much clearer picture going into Mandalika and Assen. So all in all, we are looking forward to the challenge ahead of us”

“After a short and busy winter break, we now get back down to the serious business with two back-to-back race weekends. We are very excited about the races at Phillip Island and Mandalika. It is always challenging when you compete with a new bike – particularly as the WorldSBK has an extremely strong field this year and will be very competitive. However, we are confident: we have optimised our bike, our teams are doing an outstanding job, and our four riders are among the best in the field. For us, the two teams and the four riders, it is now important to establish a good basis in Australia and Indonesia, on which we can then build over the course of the season.”

“It was nice to have another two days of testing. We had a solid plan, tried a lot of things, mainly with the electronics but also with the suspension. We did not change the bike completely but it was just small things we wanted to try and re-confirm. It has been good days of testing but as always in testing you want more time, but I think we can be quite happy. We had no problems so I am starting the weekend quite confident. At the first two rounds, we for sure need to be in the top ten. It seems that the midfield in WorldSBK is really tight now and I think we can expect some really good battles but we improved the bike a lot over the winter, step by step. Maybe not in the single-lap pace but over race distance and feeling for us. So I am looking forward to start the season. To be racing at Phillip Island and in Indonesia is amazing, two really good but completely different tracks. For me, the winter has been long enough and I can’t wait to start racing.”

“At the test, we have worked on getting some more feeling with the bike and as the track started to have more grip I started to feel better. We tried a few things to help with the rear grip again and we worked on electronics to get me more feeling in that area of the bike. We still have some work to do. Now we start the season with a double-header. I am not feeling super confident yet but it is coming slowly the more I ride the bike. The field is super close at the moment. When you look at the lap times, it is super close with everybody. So it will be difficult to say what the targets for the first two rounds are and the race is obviously different to testing. I would be happy to get some top-six finishes in the first races. Overall, we just need to play it by ear and see where we are after the first race to improve on that.”