Loris Baz says returning to the World Superbike Championship is like stepping into ‘another world’, after completing a successful first test on the Althea BMW at Jerez this week.
24-year-old Baz will make his first appearance in WorldSBK since departing for MotoGP at the end of the 2014 season next year, joining forces with the Althea team – who will be the sole BMW entrant in 2018.
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@lorisbaz is ready for his second day of testing with @AltheaRacing!
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Althea, along with a number of WorldSBK teams, has been in Jerez this week for the first pre-season test of 2018. Baz completed over 160 laps across Monday and Tuesday as he began his adjustment from the Avintia Ducati GP15 MotoGP bike to the S1000RR BMW.
“Well, I’m happy, excited. It was special to be back on this bike,” said Baz, whose best lap of 1m40.468s put him just 0.7 seconds adrift of Tuesday pacesetter and former Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes.
“Many things to learn again and to get used to again; it’s another world, really different bike.
“But in the end I was really fast, I think I finished 0.5s from the laptime I did in qualifying with the GP bike here, so I’m happy.
“I think we did a good job, many laps. We improve the weakest point of the bike a little bit, and we are in a good direction.”
Baz – who ended the 2017 MotoGP season 18th in the standings on 45 points – admits he still needs to adapt his riding style to utilise fresh rubber better, and says the BMW’s electronics are its weakest point.
However, happy in his new surroundings, the Frenchman is confident the Althea team will be able to fix his main problems having made strong progress after his first two days on the bike.
“Still I have to get used to the style a little bit more, because I’m not able to use the full potential of the new tyre yet, but this will come during the next test I think.
“The team is strong, we know that. I’ve known them for a long time, I know Genesio (Bevilacqua, team boss), I know the guys here and I know the team is really strong.
“The bike has been a good surprise for me, especially the front. I really love the feeling I have on the bike in the corner.
“We have to work on the electronics because this is the weakest point and we have been struggling a bit with this during the test.
“(It’s) a bit too aggressive, but we did a step in a good direction, so I see a good potential on this team and this bike.”
