Ryan Vickers identifies "most difficult thing" about WorldSBK adaptation from BSB

Ryan Vickers says it is "taking a bit longer" than he expected to adapt to the electronics in WorldSBK.

The British rider entered World Superbike for his debut season in 2025 with the Motocorsa team, which meant a change in machinery for the #17 who had raced with Yamaha in BSB until the end of 2024.

Such change meant Vickers came into the 2025 season with limited expectations, but he admitted that it is taking him longer than he anticipated to adapt to the bike.

“It's difficult prior to the season to lay any expectations and, and actually know where you're going to be because [firstly], I've never done it before; and, [secondly], you never know how long it's going to take to adapt and how difficult the challenges are ahead,” Ryan Vickers said, speaking to WorldSBK.com.

“I obviously knew that I've got to learn new circuits, I've got a new bike to learn, I've got new electronics to learn. But you never know how long these things are going to take.

“It's probably taking a bit longer than what I thought originally to get the hang of riding the Ducati and its electronics.”

Vickers continued on the subject of electronics, adding: “It's completely different. The most difficult thing for me as a rider is not just trying to ride around problems, because in BSB the electronics are very basic, whereas with WorldSBK electronics are set up corner-by-corner, so you can pretty much make the bike have a perfect setup for every corner in the track.

“In BSB I spent five or six years riding around on bikes where you know the bike isn't going to be perfect in all of the areas and you learn to ride around problems.

“It’s a good skill to have, but at this point it's held us back a little bit because as soon as you ride slightly different on the WorldSBK bike, the electronics automatically adapt to how you're riding, and it can cause things to not work correctly.”

He added: “Unless you ride the bike exactly how you need to, a very high level, they don't work correctly because they're set within parameters to achieve the maximum.

“To achieve the maximum, you have to do it in a certain way, and you have to brake with so much force, and apply the rear brake in the correct time and open throttle at the correct time.

“If you don't do all of these things, then it's the worst bike you could possibly ride.”

Vickers also acknowledged the strength of the field he entered in 2025.

“This year in particular is probably one of the most competitive years the championship has had – the level is so, so high,” he said.

“The lap times are crazy fast, so much faster than last year, even when the bikes haven't changed a lot. The level has just gotten higher.

“It's been different to come into it, and we are progressing. The results haven't really shown too much other than Misano, where had a bit of a bit of a breakthrough there; but every weekend we have been improving ourselves. 

“We're just waiting for the results to start showing, which is obviously difficult, but we're closing the gap every time.”

Expanding on the improvements he made at Misano, Vickers said he was helped by having experience at the track as he was able to take part in the two-day test there ahead of the Emilia-Romagna Round.

“It was good,” Vickers said of the Misano race.

“It just shows how much a little bit of track experience helps, we did a two-day test there and I've never been to Misano before those two days. It allowed us to develop the bike a little bit to suit me, it allowed me to understand how to ride better with the electronics and also learn my way around Misano.

“When we arrived there on the race weekend, we already knew that everything is working quite well.

“It was difficult because the temperature was so high on the race weekend.

“We had to move away a little bit away from what we learned during the test because in the hot conditions it wasn't working.

“By the last race my feeling was really good, and we were able to finish with a really strong result.

“That not only gives credit to the team for giving me a great bike in these tricky conditions, but it values our fitness because it's not easy and to be strong in those conditions.”