Chaz Davies ..................................
Hello all, I’m currently back in Andorra after a pretty busy couple of weeks. It’s just starting to get a bit fresh here as it’s started snowing. Had a bit a few weeks ago, and quite a bit more yesterday and though it’s not sticking just yet, it’s coming! Gotta watch it around here though if you’re up a little mountain lane, you can get caught out quite easily. Otherwise it’s nice to wind down a little bit before our 2018 season starts next week at Jerez. So, a short break, but one nice to have regardless.
Obviously I went to Qatar with one thing in mind, securing second place in the series. I got a little lucky in that my rival for it, Tom Sykes, had an issue on the Friday and he lost a load of practice time. That’s happened to me a few times so I know how difficult it is to get ready for the first race. That being said, we had our own issues too.
I wasn’t overly comfortable; we’ve actually been struggling a lot over the last few rounds and with P2 on the line I needed to make sure I had a decent pace, but it wasn’t easy at all. I was struggling with entry and exit traction, basically anything on the side of the tyre was trouble. I was having to be extra careful with the rear of the bike and that was so awkward, riding around the issue. My team-mate Marco had the same problems too, and it was tough, but we eventually got what we wanted – finishing second in both races.
Race one was all about management of where Sykes was. Jonny Rea got away a little bit early so we had to let him go. We made some changes for race two, not quite enough, but good enough. I got a great start from eighth though, and was leading out of the first turn! That was really important as it put Sykes in a tricky position immediately and he must have got such a shock when I came by. I managed to stretch a gap but to be honest, the changes only made the bike feel okay for a couple laps. Then I had a massive slide out of turn one and just managed to save it. I broke the screen and sliced my leathers too!
Anyway, Jonny got ahead but I was able to manage the gap, catching him a bit here, losing a bit there. I had nothing to lose as Tom soon crashed out, but pushing harder would have been a real risk so I was happy with keeping Jonny honest. So, second place secured, but we have a lot of stuff to work on over the winter to bridge the gap to Kawasaki.
Now then, the new rules where rev limits are reduced to try and get the other teams closer to us and Team Green. I’m not complaining about the new rules, I’m open-minded about it, but it’s also hard to be positive about it as I feel as though I’ve made a bigger difference on the Ducati than other riders on the same bike over the past four years. At what point are you limiting the human factor on the bike, to the technical factor? Have we really got a much better bike than the majority out there, or is the rider the difference? You can’t put a number on that. Is it me that’s awesome, or is my bike awesome? It’s impossible to say.
As a team it’s clear that me and Marco, and our team, has the next strongest package to Kawasaki. Our effort is strong thanks to our title sponsor, but Kawasaki put their entire might into WSB. There are so many different factors that go into it, that makes it less clear cut that reducing our power will make the right kind of difference. These rules could really hurt us, it could bring us closer or below teams that, in my opinion, are already with us, like Yamaha. They’ve been up there for quite a while and it’s been bad luck that’s hit them, though they could already have a technological advantage come the first race.
The big issue is that the new restrictions are evaluated every three rounds or so. Well, if we get hit hard, three rounds and six races in could be championship over for us by the time they realise the mistake. It’s funny, WSB used to be super competitive between everyone before they started fiddling with the rules a few years back. But hey ho, I don’t make the rules, just gotta ride the bike as best as I can. Right, testing next week and then an even bigger day – our wedding! Wish us luck!