WSBK: Opinion: MotoGP’s loss is certainly World Superbikes’ gain

It is fair to say that World Superbikes will be back to its vintage best next year, with more manufacturers providing ‘factory’ support, returning circuits and new names. One name stands out above the rest – Alvaro Bautista. People who know me well will be bored to tears of me continuously raving about his performance and how it is outrageous that he hasn’t been given a full-time MotoGP ride. However, lets look at it from an alternative point of view. MotoGP’s loss is certainly World Superbikes’ gain.

Bautista is still hungry for results; no performance demonstrated that specific fact more than his sensational Australian Grand Prix, where he replaced Jorge Lorenzo on the Factory Ducati and ran 2^nd place for the majority of the race until he finished 4^th overall. In the season overall, Bautista finished 11^th but finished the championship year off in fine style, scoring more points in the last five races than five riders who finished ahead of him in the championship – the highest being Valentino Rossi in 3^rd position. Bautista leaves one of the most competitive MotoGP grids EVER as a completed top ten runner. If he takes the form to World Superbikes and can pick up where he left off, the 2006 125cc champion could be something of a revelation.

In fact, Bautista may be the one rider who can actually take the challenge to the dominant force of Jonathan Rea in World Superbikes. Rea has achieved 56 wins from the last 78 races – all achieved at Kawasaki, a dominant force in their own right. No one is saying that Rea has had it easy, but there’s simply been nobody consistent enough to challenge him right through to the end of the year. If – and it is a big ‘if’ – Alvaro Bautista can get the Ducati Panigale V4 dialed in early enough that he doesn’t lose too many points at the start of the season, then he could be the one to challenge come the end, when he has the brand-new Ducati just how he wants it.

And that is one other thing – Bautista has had 1000cc motorcycle experience on six of the first eight circuits on the World Superbike calendar, so it won’t be all-new to him. In fact, in 2018, he had a top ten finish at five of those circuits in MotoGP, making his arrival even more anticipated and exciting. The only circuits he will have to learn are Imola, Donington Park (although he’s won a 125cc GP there), Portimao, Magny Cours and El Villicum – although by then, he’ll hope to have the Ducati set up just how he needs, to offset any new circuit learning time.

But of course, we are focusing on Alvaro and maybe not doing Jonathan Rea justice to just how good he is. Rea is a four-time champion, all four titles coming in succession. He’s won a staggering rate of races in an alarmingly short amount of time, whilst also being the ultimate professional and poster boy for World Superbikes. Not just Rea, but Kawasaki as a team are so efficient – five out of the last six World Superbike champions have been on Kawasaki and that statistic alone proves their caliber – something often overlooked in our sport is the simple fact that behind every great champion is a great team.

Overall, I think the feeling towards Alvaro Bautista arriving in World Superbikes is positive and exciting. You don’t get riders still hungry for MotoGP results take a side-step to World Superbikes every day, and Bautista doing that has brought with it a whole load of publicity to World Superbikes – some may argue that he is much needed in a paddock that has thinned out. But, all this hype must be lived up to, otherwise, if he can’t perform to the standard that I believe he will, his career runs the risk of taking a drastic and sudden downward spiral and World Superbikes runs the risk of failing to shake-off it’s ‘boring’ image – even though I personally believe that 2018 was an incredible season for WSBK, with domination and variation both coming in their own forms. Can Alvaro Bautista rock and conquer on a Superbike? It is the only question that remains to be answered on track and not just through speculation.