The Superbike world championship has begun this last weekend in Phillip Island and someone that wasn’t happy is Xavi Vierge. With a P10 on race 1 and a P13 on the race 2, the Honda rider wants more.
After the sunday race, the Team HRC rider didn’t hide his unhappiness: ‘We cannot be happy, of course, but this is our reality right now. As a team, we’ve worked well throughout the testing sessions and the race weekend. As I’ve mentioned before, the feeling on the bike isn’t bad; I enjoy riding it. But we’re not as fast as the others’.
Vierge then address some of the issues he is having:‘ We’re still struggling a lot out of the corners and with turning, which makes battling with other riders incredibly difficult because we constantly have to make up ground in braking. My pace isn’t too bad when I’m riding alone, but when I need to fight with others I struggle, because in a battle it’s hard to maintain the perfect lines. And riding like that puts a lot of stress on the tyres’.
The spaniar also said that each season the level is getting higher, and that details do matter and make a difference: ‘Every year, the championship level gets higher, and even small details can make a significant difference in terms of performance and results. Having said that, we are aware of the situation and we know we need to keep working and try to find a solution, possibly in the short term’.