Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK rider Alex Lowes participated in one testing day at Aragon as a shake down to get familiar with the ZX10RR program. Lowes completed 130 laps on the day running fifth fastest amongst the participants.
“The lap time wasn’t bad, it was at the hottest part of the day just after lunch. I finished with a 15-lap run on harder tyres to try and take some grip away, because that’s where we normally struggle. It was mentally tiring. I had three bikes. You’re sort of a bit nervous to make the wrong call now in case it hinders you in four months. A lot of the stuff we’re trying was the first try of new parts. You have to get a feel for it, give your positive and negative points and then move on. It’s not a case of keeping it on the bike and building up a setting like you would in a race weekend.”
Lowes Continued
“We need to try to find some more speed on the straight. Our bike is very good especially when the track’s grippy. With the Kawasaki, you can go down to a lap time so fast. Our first laps today were already in the mix even though we missed a day’s testing. It’s very easy to ride the bike to a certain level. We need to now find some real performance in terms of a race situation and being able to battle with the guys a bit easier. A lot of that will come from acceleration and speed. That’s an area that we’re focusing on, whether it’s engine, aerodynamics, rider position… that’s our main focus.”
Team Manager Guim Roda also Spoke on the 2024 Development Plan After the Test Day
“It was positive. It’s not easy for a fast rider. Many times, it’s just a matter of times of feedback, not how fast or not we can go. It’s to collect information, it’s not easy. Especially for a rider who immediately wants efficiency. At the same time, we combined them with some idea that we can use in the last four rounds. It has been, from an engineering perspective, very productive. I know Alex would like to do more laps on his race bike, but he understood the target.”