23.01.20
Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto
BMW Motorrad WorldSBK’s Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty today completed their two-day testing program at the the Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto, despite lack of dry weather practice. With mixed conditions at the Spanish track this limited much of the testing plan, however gave opportunity for both riders to test new component fitments to their BMW S 1000 RR’s ahead of the 2020 WorldSBK season opener in Australia.
With base set-up a key factor of the 2020 test, the BMW engineers also worked throughout the two days on electronic development and different traction control strategies, which will help to improve grip for the S 1000 RR.
At the end of the test Tom Sykes lapped a best lap time of (1’44.014), with team-mate Eugene Laverty circulating a 1’44.543.
As the two-day test at the Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto draws to a close the team will now travel across the border to the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve, where they will complete their final European pre-season test of 2020.
Shaun Muir - Team Principal
“We’ve had a big list of parts to run through this test, the wet conditions did change the sequence of what we were going to be testing but this allowed us to give extra emphasis on our electronic updates. Both Tom an Eugene worked through our list which was definitely a benefit, unfortunately we didn’t get to work on the chassis and swingarm during this test but heading over to Portimao in a couple of days this will allow us to gain a clear direction to work in.
In summary of the two-day test and the constant changing conditions we have not been looking at the lap times, in any respect that’s not what we are here to do and our focus has solely been on development and overall I feel it’s been a valuable and constructive test.”
Tom Sykes (GBR)
“Despite how bad the weather conditions have been we have actually been able to do some good fundamental work on the electronics and some small changes on the chassis. In an ideal world we would test all our parts at racing speed however having said that we have been very productive in the small time we have had. In conditions like this I’ve not been looking at the time sheets, the track changes every 20 mins and there is nothing I would achieve by risking everything, we’ve used the track time to understand some electronic parameters and now we can take this understanding forward and pencil it into our testing plan over in Portimao this weekend.”
Eugene Laverty (IRL)
“We are in a much better position than where we were from the last test, however the lap times may not reflect that as I’ve taken a role of test rider over the last two days. We have made good progress with the electronics and other small parameters on the bike so heading into Portimao with some good weather hopefully we can kick on a little and start improving our lap times.”
