Enea Bastianini: “When you are uncomfortable, you can’t push”

While Tech3 KTM team-mate Maverick Vinales was again on competitive form at the Jerez MotoGP test, team-mate Enea Bastianini is still battling for confidence on the RC16 - despite a small step forward.

Ninth in the Spanish Grand Prix, the Italian entered the first official in-season test looking to get more out of the KTM package.

But while his best lap came during a late lap time attack, he was only classified 14th, 1.0s behind the time of Vinales.

“At the end the lap time was OK,” Bastianini explained, “but again I’m not happy because I’m not riding comfortable, and when you are uncomfortable, you can’t push a lot.

“But it’s just for the moment. I think in some weeks we can resolve that problem. I can adapt better to the bike.”

Despite some gains on paper, Bastianini revealed that the underlying issues remain. 

Corner speed is currently the weakest point of his riding, and the area he and the team are focused on improving. KTM provided a few new part combinations to trial with mixed results.

“We tried some solutions on the bike and some things have helped me to be faster. The step at the moment is small. But it’s OK,” he said. “Some things worked well, some things not.”

Another obstacle for Bastianini is that he doesn’t currently feel the benefit from fresh rubber: “When I put the new tyre, I don’t understand why, but my grip remains more or less the same as the used tyre.”

While Vinales concluded the test second fastest, just 0.361s behind Marc Marquez’s Ducati, Bastianini was left encouraged by his team-mate’s pace - and the broader potential of the RC16 - even if he isn’t yet fully tapping into it himself.

“Maverick has been very, very fast again, and they’ve demonstrated they can do a great job with the bike.”

Next up is Tech3’s home French Grand Prix at Le Mans from May 9-11.