The unpredictable weather during IDM practice in Valencia prompted new Kawasaki rider Bastien Mackels to keep his laps at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo to a minimum. Team manager Emil Weber agrees with him.
The Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing Team’s first track day of the year has been a subdued affair. “We were hoping for a few days of sunshine, but the exact opposite happened,” said team boss Emil Weber today. “Our crew is in good spirits, but Bastien didn’t get much riding in,” the Swiss team boss said of his 36-year-old Belgian rider. “He didn’t want to ride the new bike in the rain right away without proper basic setup. But what he showed on the first day was quite decent for his very first time on the Kawasaki. In that respect, everything is fine. In the wet, he didn’t have to risk a crash needlessly—after all, the risk of injury is very high.”
Weber now has to figure out how the team will move forward in the coming weeks leading up to the start of the IDM season in May—knowing that “the conditions in Spain were the same for everyone.”