On Track Off Road No.183

drinking in the last chance saloon?
Deadlines spur activity in every walk of
life and Laverty is sure to find that in
2019 his deadline will have moved up.
He doesn’t want to be caught on the
backfoot again in the next turn of the
rider swaparound. Going to GoEleven is a
move that certainly has risks attached.
The team - who ran Roman Ramos in
recent years - have to prove themselves
as capable of being front-runners and
Laverty needs to prove to the paddock
that he’s still the rider he was five years
ago. Whilst his data tells him that he’s
moved forward as a rider, it’s possible
that WorldSBK has also moved on since
then. The first race of the 2019 season
will be the fifth anniversary of Laverty’s
last win in the class. A lot has changed
for the Irishman since then but now he
finally has the bike underneath him again
to prove that he’s still contender. It’s put
up or shut up time, and being the sole
focus of his team for this pivotal season
is something that he’s embracing.
the data I want to see. We’re working on
our own thing though, and if I request
their data I can get it.”
“I’ve ridden with so many top riders as
teammates: Melandri, Biaggi, Guintoli, so
I know what to look for in data. There’s
no point in looking at a screen full of colourful
lines and not knowing what you’re
seeing. It can be deceiving because
sometimes you can look at it and see a
rider doing the corner better, but now
with my experience I know to almost tell
the engineers, ‘no, ignore that. He’s doing
that, but he won’t be able to do that
after six laps...’ So now I know what to
look for and that makes a big difference.”
“It’s been good to be a single rider in a
team. I’ve never had that before, but with
a brand new bike it’s good for everyone
in the team to be focusing their attention
in the middle of the garage. Some might
feel more pressure as a single rider but
I don’t because I only focus on myself.
I’ve never really looked outside of that.
It puts all the emphasis on me. Sometimes
- especially in testing - a teammate
can pull a lap out of his ass; the old data
comes out in the overlay and is trying to
tell you to do different things. So I quite
like it that I’m able to do my own thing.”
“The data that I have is from the factory
guys, a MotoGP podium guy like Bautista
and Chaz who’s won a lot of races, that’s