Bautista: "Honda wants me to win WorldSBK, not to take risks in MotoGP"

The 36-year-old left MotoGP at the end of 2018, but has never closed the door on returning there even if it is to make a substitution. That possibility came into existence throughout 2020 , after Marc Márquez was injured in the first race. However, Honda preferred to go with its tester, Stefan Bradl, who is much more used to the RC213V .

The brand with the golden wing bet heavily on Bautista in 2018, when in his first season in WorldSBK he won the first 11 races with Ducati , although the title finally escaped him against Jonathan Rea.

“Last season I offered to do a test or a race. For HRC , the WorldSBK project is very important. They want to win. They told me ‘thank you, we want you to win the title, not so that you take risks in MotoGP doing tests or some race and miss a round of Superbikes or the development of the bike.’ If they didn’t care about WorldSBK, maybe they would prefer a rider who could race before the tester, but they prefer to keep me intact, rather than give me another chance in MotoGP.” Bautista told Motorsport.com from Motorland Aragón.

The one from Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) arrives at the first round of the year still touched by the accident he suffered while doing motocross during the winter.

“I had a fall while doing motocross four days before the Catalunya test. I feel better. I hit my chest, I didn’t break anything, but the impact was strong. After the test I had to stop because of the pain. Now, every day I feel better. It’s worse than when you break something because you need time. I’m not 100%, but I hope I don’t have any problems on the weekend,” he said.

The #19 had a difficult 2020 due to the lack of development of the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and its adaptation to the in-line four-cylinder engine. Now, with a year of experience, he is confident that the season will go better for both of them.

“It has been the longest pre-season of my life, although we have done few tests. The bike improved last year. We corrected many things: electronics, weight distribution, geometry, etc. With this bike you cannot make many changes on the model of street like in MotoGP. The bike is better. I don’t know whether to fight from the beginning, but I’m sure I’ll be more competitive. Now for me with the inline four engine it’s different. I have had to adapt and it is familiar to me. The bike is no longer so aggressive,” he insists.