WSBK – WSBK: teams, drivers and challenges for the 2011 season – Ducati: four 1198s and our two nuggets

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WSBK: teams, drivers and challenges for the 2011 season

WSBK - WSBK: teams, drivers and challenges for the 2011 season - Ducati: four 1198s and our two nuggets

Once again this year, Site will follow the exploits, setbacks, fights and victories of the World Superbike for you. The 2011 season begins February 26 in Australia, but let’s take advantage of the official tests in Portimao to make the presentations !

Ducati: four 1198s and our two nuggets

Given the disappearance in 2011 of the official Ducati team (read), Team Althea poses – for the moment – as the best representative of the Bologna brand.

Third in the 2010 championship, ahead of the official drivers Haga (6th) and Fabrizio (8th), Carlos Checa is back on the 1198R and intends to do better: "the team is working really well. Personally I am confident, I know that I will be able to fight for the title despite the fierce competition, Biaggi in the lead", said the Spanish at the beginning of the year.

Asked by his team what he would like to improve in 2011, Carlos answered unequivocally: "more power, that would be great". Ducati engineers, monopolized by the MotoGP program, will they have been sensitive to this call? The answer will be available on Site after the tests in Portimao and the first races of the season…

A great fan of sensational sports, El Torro spent the winter hitting the slopes on snowboard, riding mountain bikes or enduro, climbing mountain passes and cliffs with his bare hands … In short, the pilot of 38 years old, ex-Grand Prix star, has never had so much fun. As evidenced by his Christmas card (see opposite) sent on December 24 to his friends and the press. Sacred Checa !

In the past – until two years ago – Ducati in France invariably rhymed with Regis Laconi. This year, Ducati will rhyme with Berger and Guintoli !

Indeed, two of our best motorcycle speed ambassadors will also be driving 1198Rs. Maxime, Superstock 1000 vice-world champion with Honda Ten Kate last year, will participate in his first World Superbike season with the Supersonic team.

The French rookie has already tested his new mount during private testing in Cartagena. Gold n ° 121 – to remember! – raved about the beautiful Italian: "handling the bike was easier than I imagined and frankly, that’s a real racing bike! It works hard, it brakes dry and it stays stuck to the pavement !", he summarized.

Maxime did not lose the north for all that and established an equally luminous report on the challenge to be met: "Next year will surely not be rosy, because in SBK if you shoot within a second of the first, it’s over for you. We will have to "send heavy and weld dry", while being regular".

Impatient to do battle with his new friends – he will also find Badovini on his BMW and the Superstock 1000 champions – Maxime does not put any pressure on himself: "It does not stress me at all, driving makes me happy, I will "open wide" and we will see the result.".

"I need to drive to get the measure of the Ducati. So just after testing in Portimao, with the team we will take the direction of the Aragon circuit for two additional days of driving on Sunday 30th and Monday 31st January. I will give you all my impressions in a future news", promises our great hope: stay connected !

Although it is no longer strictly speaking a "hope" but truly a sure bet for French speed (and endurance on occasion, read), many French bikers hope for great feats from by Sylvain Guintoli !

After a solid and regular first year, but all in all a little discreet because devoid of any podium in the constant shadow of Leon Haslam, our favorite n ° 50 swapped this season the GSX-R 1000 of the Suzuki Alstare team for a prepared 1198R. by the Liberty Racing team.

Unlike Carlos and Maxime, Sylvain will share his box with another driver: Jakub Smrz, alias Mister Qualif ‘. A driver of Czech nationality, like the Liberty team and the beer which sponsors him, who knows how to be particularly swift in qualifying – "the most" swift in fact! – but struggles to transform his excellent tests during the races.

Conversely, Sylvain was too often handicapped by places in the middle of the grid to catch the lead car from the first turns or the first laps in the race, when he had the potential to do so. Hopefully the Franco-Czech duo will complement each other and do wonders this year !

During their first tests last week at the Guadix track (Spain), Guintoli said he was delighted with his new bike: "I enjoyed getting back on a two-wheeler after my leg surgery, and driving the Ducati was really fun". Hope it lasts !

Ducati teams

Ducati Althea Racing

  • Carlos Checa # 7

    Supersonic Racing Team

  • Maxime Berger # 121

    Effenbert – Liberty Racing

  • Sylvain Guintoli # 50

  • Jakub Smrz # 96

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