Tom Sykes hopes the opening European round of the 2015 World Superbike season will see him finally get to grips with the new Kawasaki ZX-10R. The championship arrives at Motorland Aragon with Sykes already 45 points behind Jonathan Rea in the championship standings and the Yorkshireman hopes some planned tweaks will enable him to get on terms with his teammate.
“I got on the podium in Thailand but we are still finding the best way to give a better bike set-up for me. We have a plan and we now need to see if we can make it work. I have had some success recently at Motorland but honestly I look at every circuit as a chance to try and achieve something. In Aragon I am looking forward to it more from the point of view that we have some reference from there and we will see how this bike compares to last year’s. We have some ideas to try and help me and hopefully we can put them into practice in a good way. I am very much looking forward to Motorland in its new layout as the last corner is more exciting than the previous one – but it will be the same for everybody”.
On the other hand, Rea has only dropped five points in the opening four races of 2015 and although he has looked immediately comfortable with the ZX-10R, the Ulsterman is taking nothing for granted.
“I left Thailand with such a good feeling and I have been speaking with my guys already about the plan for this weekend. We need to start at zero again, not get carried away, and it is going to be super-tough. We are back in Europe where everybody has a lot of data, so it should be much, much more competitive. We just have to see where we stack up on Friday and Saturday and work methodically to make sure we have a package to compete at the front. The final corner at Motorland has been changed from the one we used in 2014. I enjoyed the previous one but I also like faster corners and the new layout makes the lap more exciting, simply because it is faster. I enjoy either layout and I am just excited to get back on the bike again.”
