Portimão test, another wasted day: now BMW is in serious trouble

Still nothing doing for Superbike, plagued by bad weather: the second day of testing at Portimao was lost, just as it had been at the end of January. The stop-and-go preseason is a problem for everyone, but even more so for BMW.

Over four days spent on the Algarve rollercoaster, before and after the World Championship appetizer in Australia, the Superbike teams were able to ride in dry conditions for only half a day, on Monday, March 9. Here are the times. Bimota with Alex Lowes was faster than the Ducati of the reigning points leader, Nicolò Bulega, who also had a heavy crash that fortunately left him unhurt. In ten days’ time, Portimao will host the second round of the World Championship, now clouded by a thousand uncertainties.

The wasted time complicates everyone’s plans, including Ducati’s, which needed to gather data on the new Panigale V4R. At Phillip Island, however, the Red with the double-sided swingarm hit the jackpot, winning three times with Bulega and also flying with the satellite riders: Bautista, Baldassarri, and Montella all tasted the podium. So having to forgo the Portuguese test is a relative problem for Ducati. The one that can truly regret it is BMW which, apart from Australia, has so far been unable in Europe to help two experienced riders like Danilo Petrucci and Miguel Oliveira build mileage on the M1000RR, a bike they still know very little about. With Toprak Razgatlioglu here, BMW was in its element; in ten days’ time the potential is anyone’s guess. Even if Oliveira is racing at home and will be especially motivated.

The Superbike preseason has gone almost completely up in smoke: at Portimao they rode half a day out of four, at Jerez not even that—two days lost. We’re talking about two European destinations, thus reachable overland, and for this new test in Portugal, which was supposed to plug the gap from the previous one, the costs are offset by the fact that the entire logistics operation will obviously remain on site until the race weekend of March 26–28. So the costs, in some respects, are amortized. It is still money thrown away on flights and staff accommodation—no small sums, considering that top Superbike teams now have dozens of personnel. Honestly, it was hard to predict that in southern Europe, where winters are typically milder and drier, you could run into such a debacle. And it’s hardly plausible that Superbike can afford the luxuries of the past, when in winter the top teams would head to Australia or South Africa, straight into summer. A championship with only twelve rounds, just one of them outside the Old Continent—already held in Australia—how can it afford to run tests in exotic locations?