Andrea Locatelli “a bit in trouble” as new WorldSBK season approaches

Yamaha WorldSBK rider Andrea Locatelli feels he is “a bit in trouble” after the final preseason test before the opening round.

Locatelli, on a 1m30.205, ended the Phillip Island World Superbike test 16th-fastest and as the third-best Yamaha behind Xavi Vierge (ninth, 1m29.812) and Stefano Manzi (15th, 1m30.110), and was almost 1.6 seconds slower than Nicolo Bulega at the top of the times.

Yamaha struggled at Phillip Island last year, too, Locatelli being the best of them but going 7-6-7 on the weekend as Ducati dominated. He of course went on to win at Assen last year, being the only rider other than Bulega and Toprak Razgatlioglu to win in 2025. 

But even though Locatelli was behind the dominant Ducatis at Phillip Island 12 months ago, he was at least ahead of the Bimotas, but they have seemingly taken a step forward and were next-best after Ducati with Axel Bassani fifth and Alex Lowes sixth.

Locatelli, then, was understandably concerned when faced with his own performance.

“For sure, we were a bit in trouble during these two days of test,” Andrea Locatelli admitted, speaking to WorldSBK.com.

“Unfortunately, during this winter we didn’t ride a lot, so to put all together was not very easy. Unfortunately, the feeling is not really amazing, we are a bit in trouble. 

“I feel a lot on this track at the moment the bumps – it looks, at the moment, my main problem, so we will try to have a solution for that because it’s important and we will see during the race weekend what we can do. I want to trust and we will try to push 100 per cent like always.”

Looking ahead to the race weekend on 20–22 February, Locatelli was counting on the harder tyre allocation working in his favour – the test tyre allocation having been altered as a result of shipping delays last week.

“For sure, during the race weekend we have a different tyre, so this can be an option that’s on the table,” he said.

“There are many things at the moment that we are not in control, so let’s keep all the motivation high to be faster during the race weekend, try to be faster, and then see. 

“But we have all the weekend to work. It’s the first race, I know that it’s important to start in a good way but unfortunately we are a bit in trouble so we need to be positive and keep working.”

The Italian is also hopeful of finding more speed from the bike, but the main area of margin might be in himself.

“During these couple of days off we have time to look in and try to understand what we can try on Friday and then we will see,” he said.

“For sure I will try to have a bit of a different approach because, try to push a bit more. During a test it’s always tricky; for sure I was not taking really high risk, I was trying to push hard but not on the limit, so let’s see if we can do better.”