It’s enough to drive you crazy. After just half a lap, it was already over for Florian Alt. The 26-year-old was riding his Wilbers BMW in the IDM Superbike free practice session at pretty much the highest point of the Red Bull Ring when everything just stopped working. “Not again,” said Chief Technician Burkhard Stember in the pit, throwing his hands up in the air, and added: “Next time, I’ll give Flo a laptop so he can read out the errors right away.” But Stember wanted to look at one thing positively. This time, the breakdown happened in practice and not in the race. That gives us hope.
The complete failure at the season opener, the electronics malfunction in Assen—that’s not how the Wilbers Racing Team had envisioned the 2022 season. They wanted to win the title, but Markus Reiterberger has already clinched it early. Now, Alt’s only goal is to beat the now four-time champion at least one more time. Now, at the Red Bull Ring, Alt’s electronics failed again during practice. Diagnosis: a short circuit in the wiring harness; the fuse blew, and that was the end of it. The incredibly fit superbike rider pushed the M 1000 RR back to the pits on his own, despite the hilly terrain. Aside from a little muscle soreness in his calves, he didn’t mind.
Alt himself doesn’t seem frustrated despite the frequent breakdowns—there wasn’t a single one last year. On the contrary. “We’re delivering a top performance. Neither Leon Haslam, Loris Baz, nor Leandro Mercado are capable of beating Markus Reiterberger. We’re the only ones who can do that, and we’re staying in the hunt. I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Reiti once again on his fourth title. He hasn’t done a single thing wrong this year.”
Is Alt already thinking about next year? “Not at all—the season is still in full swing for me. But my team—the whole crew—is working together seamlessly, and I feel stronger than ever. I keep that in mind. And I can’t even say we were really unlucky because of the absences. Thomas Gradinger, Toni Finsterbusch, or Luca Grünwald: those riders had real bad luck.”