The Kawasaki WorldSSP Team and rider Jeremy Alcoba have concluded an official two-day test at the Phillip Island Circuit in Australia, during which they have worked to develop the 2025 Ninja ZX-6R on track. Winter tests conditioned by rain, combined with the Spanish rider’s hand injury (the result of a crash last season), has limited the work of Manuel Puccetti’s team, which has only been able to work concretely on the new Japanese bike in Australia, over the last two days. On day one of this test session, Alcoba set a best time of 1’33”693, a performance that he then improved upon on day two, stopping the clocks on 1’33”266. Though aware that there is still a lot of work to do in order to fully exploit the potential of both bike and rider, the Kawasaki WorldSSP Team is ready to take on this first championship round, which will take place at the same Australian track over the weekend of 21-23 February.

Manuel Puccetti: “We still have a lot of work to do in Supersport. We made a late start to the test, also due to Jeremy’s hand injury, and then didn’t make many laps due to bad weather. We were hoping to be able to work more on a bike that is totally new to us. We need more time.”

Jeremy Alcoba: “I’m not totally satisfied with the way these last two days have gone. On day one, we were lacking continuity due to continuous interruptions with red flags. We tried many things but without managing to define anything. Today we focused only on certain aspects of the bike and our work was constructive, allowing us to find good race pace. I’m not pleased with my position in the standings of course, because we are far from the frontrunners, but I know we still have a lot of work to do. We’ll do our best during this first championship round.”

Garrett Gerloff and his Ninja ZX-10RR took to the track for their final pre-season test sessions, between 17 and 18 February, shortly before the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship season gets underway at Phillip Island this coming weekend.

The new combination of Gerloff and the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team enjoyed one fully sunny day and one more dry track session before rains arrived on the final afternoon of the DWO Official WorldSB tests at the 4.445km long Phillip Island Circuit, which is located on the south coast of Australia.

Garrett set good lap times and got through his planned final preparations for race weekend. He had one small crash on day one and a very fast fall on day two, which he escaped without significant injury.
After a dry and sunny start in the morning, the final afternoon track session was begun in fully wet conditions, with just one short period with an almost dry track surface right at the end.

With all possible pre-season preparations now complete attention turns to the true start of the latest WorldSBK season, which will provide a first partnership between Gerloff and the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team.

The race weekend will feature three days of action, starting on Friday 21 February. There will be three WorldSBK races, with two longer contests over 20-laps and one ‘sprint’ over ten laps. The longer races this year will be split into two halves, by regulation, with a mandatory tyre change for all riders at the halfway point.

Manuel Puccetti: “Garrett and his team did a great job and he demonstrated very strong race pace yesterday. Unfortunately, he crashed this morning and that conditioned the entire day. In the afternoon he lapped in the wet to define our rain setup.”

Garrett Gerloff: “The opening day of the test was the best one and I can say that the second day was not the best, from the beginning. It’s not been great today but I appreciate the hard work done by the team to fix the bike after the crash. Now we have to forget about the final pre-season test and focus on the first race weekend of the new season.”