Now that the season has reached its midpoint at Most, World Superbike makes its way to Portimao to kick off the second half of the year. For Dominique Aegerter, who is visiting Portugal after winning the podium in CIV SBK last weekend following a close race with Alessandro Delbianco, this is a particularly significant time. After a challenging start to the season that has Domi sitting in 11th place in the championship with 64 points, it will never be more crucial for the Swiss rider of the GRT team to get results with which to tear apart the clouds around his future. A scenario we discussed at Racing Night of the Italian Superbike Championship with the two-time Supersport World Champion.
“For me it is a great pleasure to participate in the Italian Championship and there is no better place than Misano, which is a really nice track,” Aegerter underlined , “I have to thank the GRT team, which gave me the opportunity to take part in this race and train, so that I could arrive in good shape in Portimao. As you can also see from the times, there are some fast riders here and a good organization.”
Did you expect to find this level?
“I knew there were some riders I have raced with in the past, like Pirro, Bernardi, or Delbianco in Endurance, who are also good riders, but obviously the bike is not the same as the one I use in Superbike, so I have to adapt my riding. Plus, riding at night is very special, and the first day I had a hard time seeing where to go because it was quite dark. It’s not like in Qatar, and we also had to make some changes to the dashboard, which was very bright, but I improved already on the second day.”
Now that the season has reached its midpoint at Most, World Superbike makes its way to Portimao to kick off the second half of the year. For Dominique Aegerter, who is visiting Portugal after winning the podium in CIV SBK last weekend following a close race with Alessandro Delbianco, this is a particularly significant time. After a challenging start to the season that has Domi sitting in 11th place in the championship with 64 points, it will never be more crucial for the Swiss rider of the GRT team to get results with which to tear apart the clouds around his future. A scenario we discussed at Racing Night of the Italian Superbike Championship with the two-time Supersport World Champion.
Speaking of the World Championship, there were high expectations for the first part of the season but the results didn’t come. How are you living this moment?
“I think I will live better when I have better results (laughs, ed.), but I certainly am not giving up. I train very hard. I put everything into the race weekends to try to achieve my result, which is to be in the top six. A couple of times we were a little unlucky and had technical failures, while in the other races I was strong in qualifying and we were able to start on the second row. I got some good Top 10s, but not where I wanted to be.”
How much did missing the first part of the winter preparation weigh on you?
“We missed a lot, because you have four days where it is important to fine-tune the basic set-up of the bike. It’s very difficult to do that during a race weekend, because Friday practice has to be tackled one with new tyre and one with used tyre, and maybe in the morning the asphalt temperature is 30°C and in the afternoon it’s 45°C, so it’s always quite difficult to make changes when you don’t have a base. I think we missed that a little bit this year to be able to perform better on Friday morning, but we tried to figure out how to improve.”
Do you think this is the main reason why you are struggling so much?
“Not really, because I know the bike and we have some data from last year, but also the level of Superbike has increased, so there are three or four more riders fighting for the Top 5 and everything has to be perfect to be able to finish in the top six, which I want to do. But so far we’ve been struggling a bit and we have to work to get back to where I finished last year.”
Is it helping you to see the data from the other Yamaha riders?
“Yes, seeing data from three different riders is a big help for all of us to take the project higher.”
Rea seems to be starting to understand the bike. What do you think of his progression?
“He was with another manufacturer for a long time and I think he expected better results when he joined the Yamaha family. He hit a pole position and a third place, though, and he just passed me in the championship. He is a Superbike legend, but he also needs some time to understand the bike and the set-up, however, I hope I can stay ahead of him (smiles, ed.).”
