Alvaro Bautista prioritising “feeling” over results at French WorldSBK

Having crashed out of Race 2 at Portimao, you could expect there to be some urgency in Alvaro Bautista at this weekend’s WorldSBK French Round, but the reigning champion is focusing on the positives.

While he crashed out, Bautista was fighting for the lead when he did so back in Portugal around one month ago, something he has done much more rarely in 2024 than in 2023, for example, when he won 27 races.

“I finished the Portimao round really happy,” Bautista told WorldSBK.com, “because our performance for me was the best of the season so far. Now, here in Magny-Cours, we have to see first the weather conditions because here is a bit unpredictable.

“I have good memories from last year, because we were quite competitive, our performance was really high. That’s my target: if we can arrive to our performance of last year, it would be really nice.

“I don’t know which position we can fight for, but the important thing for me is to keep the feeling I had in Portimao, and to, step-by-step, improve that feeling.”

And it is that feeling with the bike that is the most important thing for Bautista at the minute, more than results.

“In terms of results, I don’t have any clear target,” he said. “For me it’s more important to ride the bike as I want, to force the bike, to arrive to the limit.

“If I can do it, for sure the result would be good, because the result is a consequence of the work, of the feeling, of the riding, so for me the important thing is to recover the feeling, to ride like last year, that’s all. I think if I can have fun riding the bike, the result will be good.”