Ryan Vickers targeting top-10s and qualifying improvement at UK WorldSBK

2025 WorldSBK rookie Ryan Vickers says he is targeting the top-10 at the UK Round this weekend.

Vickers, who made his move up to the World Superbike Championship this year with Motocorsa Ducati, has scored one top-10 finish this year in the Assen Superpole Race, but is yet to achieve the feat in a dry race, in which conditions his best finish has been the 11th from Race 2 at Misano.

“I've been close to the top-10 a few times,” Ryan Vickers told WorldSBK.com ahead of the UK Round at Donington this weekend.

“We want to try and get our first top-10 dry result.”

Vickers added that a front-four-rows start is also on his objectives list for the Donington race.

“I think another big goal for me is to achieve a good qualifying position; I need to try to get on the front three or four rows at least,” he said.

“At the same time, we need to be realistic. If I can get on the front four rows, inside the top-12, that would be a massive step, because I’ve been in P18-20; we're just not optimising the new tyre.”

Expanding on his difficulties exploiting the grip of a fresh tyre, Vickers added: “It’s largely about electronics and learning to ride the bike differently. I want to improve on qualifying this time.

“I know how to extract a lot from Donington. I just have to try to figure it out with the bike and the tyre.

“Whatever it is, I want to try to achieve a top-10. But if it takes the whole weekend to do it, and we arrive there in Race 2, I'd still be happy.

“If we can get a good qualifying, then I think we can battle for the top-10.”

Track knowledge is going to be a key element that Vickers is expecting to yield an improvement in results at Donington.

“It’s super exciting, it's going to be nice, it’ll be nice to be actually able to roll out an FP1 and know my way [around the track],” he said.

“In other rounds, I’ve been having to focus on learning how to ride the Ducati and use FP1 to set the bike up correctly.

“That familiarity is a really nice feeling for me because there's nothing like knowing the circuit, rolling out, and not having to focus on it too much.

“A lot of my energy is focused on lines and doing this and trying that and, unfortunately, it's difficult to go fast when you've got a lot of things you're having to consciously think about.

“When you don't have to use that conscious effort and you focus solely on going fast because it's happening naturally, that's when you get the most out of your performance.

“That's where I got to in BSB. I knew the circuits off the back of my hand. Every time I took to the track, I was just focused on going fast, and that was it.

“Now, there are a lot of things that I have to think about. Donington is going to be nice because I know it. I still have some things to consider, but I'm familiar with the circuit, I know the correct lines, and I know what will help create a fast lap time.

“It'll also be nice to see the fans there and see a lot of people I know.

“I think it should be a good turnout of fans, even though I've been quite surprised that the European rounds have been very busy with British fans. I've had a lot of support and I'm really appreciative of that, but there's nothing like going home, so that'll be a nice feeling.”

“Learning a little bit from Bulega”

After six rounds, Vickers and Motocorsa are set to introduce a small new part at Donington, based on what they’ve understood from what the factory team, and in particular current World Superbike points leader Nicolo Bulega, is doing with his setup on the Ducati Panigale V4 R.

“Nothing really new, just a new seat pad on the bike,” Vickers said of the new parts he will have at Donington.

“I’m learning a little bit from Bulega and what the factory guys are doing. They're running slightly different parts in the seating area of the bike.

“We can't achieve them just yet, but we are doing our best to create a similar effect that it has on the bike to get more rear grip.

“It's working well for Bulega, so all Ducati riders are now trying to do the same.

“We're going to try something at Donington, which we tried a little bit at Misano, and it helped. Let's see if we can make another step in that direction.”