The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team has completed a two-day private test at the Misano World Circuit with Stefan Bradl and test rider Michele Magnoni, in preparation for the seventh round of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship, which takes place at the same venue in three weekend’s time.
Bradl and Magnoni completed a significant number of laps around the 4.226km Italian circuit, which was blessed with summer weather conditions and high temperatures. The two riders evaluated new items and settings for the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2, including a new fuel tank, new swingarm and updated electronic settings. The test drew to a close today, Thursday 1 June, at 1pm.
Stefan Bradl 6
We did quite a few laps during this test and tried many things, which gave us a lot of information our team and technical partners can work on during this little break between now and the next race. We focused much of our attention to the throttle connection and driveability of the engine, which is still our priority at the moment, so we hope that things will improve on this side for the next round. We have also tried the new fuel tank and that turned out to be an improvement in terms of riding position, and evaluated the new swingarm, but we didn’t have enough time to test it properly. Overall, there’s still work to do, but we’ve ticked quite a few boxes here at Misano.
Pieter Breddels
This was an important test, but we wished we still had a bit more time, given the second and final day was over at 1pm. Stefan and Michele tried many different things and, even if there is still a lot of work to do in many areas, at least we were able fully to identify the things we needed to act on most urgently. We have found an initial set-up for the next round, although it won’t be a head start as almost all top teams were here testing with us. Anyway, we still have a couple of weeks before the next race, so we hope to make the most of them and be ready for Misano. I want to thank Michele Magnoni for helping us through the many items we had to test and for his comments. In effect he was pre-testing many things before Stefan, so that took some weight off Bradl’s shoulders
