WorldSBK minimum weight rule “stupid” - Alvaro Bautista

Alvaro Bautista says WorldSBK could have three-way victory fights in 2025 without its combined minimum weight rule.

The rule was introduced for the 2024 World Superbike season after Bautista won 27 of 36 races in 2023 in a dominant run to the title.

Since then, Bautista has only won four races, the most recent coming in Aragon Race 2 last year.

The Spanish rider has become more outspoken in his opposition to the rule, branding it “discrimination” in a social media post after the Emilia-Romagna Round in June.

At Donington, Bautista, who struggled to be in the top-10 during practice but was able to finish on the podium in third, closely behind his factory Ducati teammate Nicolo Bulega and three seconds from the winner Toprak Razgatlioglu, said that, without the rule, there could be three riders fighting for victory instead of two.

“The problem is when you penalise only a rider, not the bike, the rider,” Alvaro Bautista said after Race 2 at Donington.

“This is the big problem.

“I think if they removed this stupid rule – because there is no sense with this rule – maybe now we can see, instead of two riders fighting for victory, three.”

He added that his success in the past came not because of his light weight but because of his late race pace on used tyres.

“In the past, I had a lot of problems in the first laps – if you saw all my races before, in the first laps I never just go straight and escape.

“Maybe two or three places that maybe I was too strong, but in the normal races I was just fighting in the first laps.

“Then, after mid-race, I started to make a big difference – for everything, for energy of my body, for the tyre consumption, for everything; because, also in that moment, the bike was coming lighter after a few laps, so for me it is much easier to ride the bike.

“You have two kinds of force in the corner: [downward] force, and side force. Now, I have more problems because the side force is stronger than the [downward] force, for me, and especially in these kinds of corners, you feel even more.”

Alvaro Bautista explains tyre strategy

Bautista followed this pattern in Race 2 at Donington, falling back from Bulega by around three seconds in the opening part of the race before catching him again by the end.

Bulega himself said this was down to tyre choice, because where he had the SCX rear tyre, Bautista had the harder-compound SC0.

Bautista took a defensive stance on this, saying that it’s not possible for him to be competitive with the SCX because he can’t push on a full tank, so he needs a tyre that will still have grip at the end when the bike is lighter.

“After mid-race, I was able to match the same pace as both of them [Bulega and Razgatlioglu].

“Okay, you say because [I] use SC0 and they used SCX, but [they] have the advantage at the beginning with the SCX.

“It depends on your strategy.

“At the end, with the SCX, I cannot push more because I depend a lot on the bike, so I cannot use because the bike, [either] with the SCX or SC0, pushes me out.

“So, I prefer just to, at least when the bike is coming a bit lighter, to have some tyre.

“For that, I had to choose the SC0, I was forced to use this tyre, not because it was more performant, no, I chose it because I cannot use the performance at the beginning because the bike doesn’t allow me.

“I have to play with my cards.

“Everybody has cards and you have to play your best cards, so this is my card.”

He added: “I think it could be a good idea to just leave all the riders to be in the same conditions to ride, and depend [on] the ability of each rider.”