The season has only just finished but already Honda’s WSBK squad are back testing so that they can start next season on the front foot.
Leon Camier has therefore completed his first-ever test with the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team at ‘Circuito de Jerez’ in southern Spain, in which he got to grips with the team’s Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 machine for the first time. Honda have explained that the 31-year-old Briton finished with an impressive best time of 1’39.333secs lap time after lapping the 4.423km fast-flowing Andalusian track 217 times over the course of the three days.
On the opening day of action, Camier got a first taste of Honda’s superbike machine with the bike in the specification used in Qatar for the 2017 season finale, in order for him to understand the character of the bike and make some small adjustments to improve riding position and comfort. Leon and the crew then began making more drastic changes to the set-up of the Fireblade on day two, which helped him get up to speed to break the 1’40secs barrier for the first time.
The final day saw Camier evaluating some new items developed for the 2018 season, which included a new swingarm and a differently reinforced chassis, and both positively welcomed by the new rider.
The team will now return to its headquarters in the Netherlands for what will be a busy winter before they return to the track on January 23-24 – once the testing ban draws to a close – for a two-day private test which will again take place at Jerez.
Leon Camier 2
I’m really, really happy with this three-day test. I managed to get up to speed quite quickly, and yesterday I was able to set decent lap-times on race tyres. Today it was more about understanding how the bike reacts to different changes – what works for me and what doesn’t. By the end of the day we had just about figured out how the bike needs to be set up, and we also tried some new components. Overall I think we found a really good base from which to develop, but obviously we need to see how it will work on different tracks and over race distances. But it’s been a great start, nonetheless, and I’m delighted.
– Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team
Kervin Bos
Team Manager
We are more than happy with this first experience with Leon here at Jerez. It didn’t take him too long for him to get used to the Fireblade – which was exactly as it was when it left Qatar earlier this month – and step by step he was able to build a feel for it. He was pleased with what he found and pinpointed some really strong areas of the bike, something we were quite glad to hear. On the second day we made some bigger changes to the set-up by cross-referencing his feedback with the data we had, and his times improved a lot – along with the mood of the team! Today we worked on some new solutions for 2018, which again brought some positives. The main goal for the test was to make sure Leon could get comfortable with the bike and the team, but also to find a direction for the development of the package during the testing ban, which is going to be an extremely busy one for us!
– Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team
It’s going to be a cracking new season in MotorMartin’s opinion.
Where will you go?