Petrucci, highs and lows at Jerez: "But with BMW the potential is really high"

Strong in the wet at Jerez, less so in the dry: Petrucci still has a lot of work to do with the BMW to reach the desired level.

He was the fastest of all on Wednesday with a wet track, but once it dried Danilo Petrucci struggled with the M 1000 RR. He finished the SBK test at Jerez with the seventeenth time, 1.492s off leader Nicolò Bulega. The best BMW was Michael van der Mark’s, fifth at +0.505s from the top, while Miguel Oliveira ended up eleventh (+1.116s). Riding at Portimão in normal conditions would be ideal to make progress; we’ll see if the weather is kind in Portugal at the next test (January 28–29).

Petrux was a bit surprised not to be fast enough with his M 1000 RR, already tested at Jerez in November but under different conditions: "Honestly, I thought I’d understood the bike better,” he told Speedweek. “But I realized it behaves differently compared to the November tests. We were able to use half a day and the conditions weren’t perfect, but it was useful to ride. We discovered many things, even if I wasn’t very fast: now we have to try to understand why."

The Umbrian rider needs to be on track as much as possible to get to know the BMW better and learn to ride it as effectively as possible. The time on a dry track (actually semi-dry, given the wet patches) was too short, and for someone switching bikes that’s not ideal. There’s also the risk that Portimão will again bring adverse conditions.

Petrucci, like Oliveira, is asking for time to adapt to the M 1000 RR: "It’s a long process, because this bike is really different from what I was used to. The potential is really, really high. But you have to get to know the bike. On the first day I was really happy, because it’s one of the best bikes I’ve ridden in the rain, but on the second day the track wasn’t in perfect condition. It was still useful, because the conditions were very different from the November tests, so we understood that the bike and I needed something different. We hope that next week in Portimão we’ll have better conditions and can build up more experience."

Petrux has had excellent seasons with Barni’s Ducati, he has experience and will certainly find a way to be competitive with BMW as well. How competitive, however, remains to be seen. It seems difficult to imagine anyone reaching the level of a phenomenon like Toprak Razgatlioglu, capable of winning two Superbike world titles with the M 1000 RR. But Danilo is determined to succeed with the German brand and will give everything in this first experience with a factory SBK team.