Huewen: ‘Carrasco deserved more respect’, Bautista ‘shouldn’t have blasted off’

The WorldSBK champion suffered a crash during the second day of testing in Jerez one week ago, after rapidly closing in on a slower-moving Carrasco before having to alter his line which resulted in him losing the front of his Ducati Panigale V4 R.

In the aftermath, Bautista alluded to Carrasco being too slow to ride with WorldSBK riders - the former WorldSSP300 champion took part in the test on a Yamaha R6 - and that she should ride with ‘amateurs’ instead. 

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This brought out a fiery response from the first-ever female world champion, with Carrasco saying Bautista’s comments were directed at her due to being a woman. 

When discussing the incident on the latest episode of the Crash.net MotoGP Podcast, Huewen felt as though Bautista was more at fault.

Huewen said: "Well, it’s quite easy to answer really. There’s a disparity in Motorbikes out there. Forget about the amateur or the disparity in talent. Alvaro Bautista is a MotoGP [calibre] rider at the end of the day and a good one. 

"He’s been through the ranks and him approaching a slower motorcycle; he ought to know better to start with. But for me, there shouldn’t be motorbikes out on the track that have a disparity in performance. 

"Forget about the riders, it’s a bit like Alvaro is speaking as if it’s a track day where you have a fast group, slow group and intermediate group. That isn’t the case because it’s a test and everyone is out testing. 

"You come across people who aren’t as fast as you talent-wise and are on motorbikes that aren’t as fast as your motorbike. It sounds to me like Alvaro got himself tangled up."

Since winning the 2018 Supersport 300 title, Carrasco has failed to reach the same heights while Bautista enjoyed his best season as a professional in 2022, winning the Superbike title for the first time with Ducati.

But while the pair might be at different stages of their career, Huewen also felt that Carrasco deserved more respect than what was shown to her. 

"Where this non-story has become such a big thing is because they both blasted off in public which they never should have done," added the former British champion. 

"Ana Carrasco is a world champion; you could argue that the Supersport 300 class is not MotoGP standard or WorldSBK standard, but it is a world championship that a woman won for the first time ever. 

"Therefore she deserved a little bit more respect than perhaps being called an amateur, that I will say straight away. I think it’s a 70-30 thing. Alvaro is 70% in the wrong for me. 

"He’s approaching the slower bike and he already said that she was half a straight in front of him and that he could see the bike. He knows what the closing rate is. She may not have been on the right part of the track, she might have been going out on an out lap or coming in at the end of the lap, but it’s a test at the end of the day. It’s not a race. 

"You can’t criticise people in a test. It’s as much your responsibility to see what’s going on around you as it is theirs's. I think Alvaro blasted off when he shouldn’t have done. But like I said, you shouldn’t motorbikes out on the track that have a massive disparity. 

"That is the underlying thing for me. If you’re gonna have a test session then you split it up into half-hour sessions. You have WorldSBK and then anything other than that goes out in another session. Sorts it all out. It shouldn’t be put at risk like that but Alvaro should have kept his mouth shut."