Bridewell: Past success 'put the pressure on us, need to be more patient'

Bridewell clinched his first podium of the 2022 BSB season at Oulton Park, but after dominating round nine at the same venue in 2021, patience is now key as he looks to extract the best performance from his new Panigale V4 R. 

The Oxford Products Ducati rider, like at Silverstone, led the charge for Ducati as Josh Brookes and in particular Tom Sykes struggled. 

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Bridewell initially had to recover from a poor qualifying, but to his credit he did just that as race one showcased similar levels of dominance as last year, but in a different way.

Instead of waltzing off into the distance for a comfortable victory, as was the case during the showdown, Bridewell made overtake after overtake before closing a substantial gap to the podium battle in just a handful of laps. 

Bridewell was unable to replicate that type of performance in race two as he crashed out at the final corner, however, race three was again a strong showing as he claimed second. 

With that said, Bridewell wasn’t completely satisfied after alluding to feeling more pressure heading into the weekend based off last year’s incredible round nine. 

"It’s been a little bit of a topsy-turvy weekend really. You come here from last year at round nine and we had absolutely nailed the window of where the bike likes to be worked," said Bridewell. 

"I was riding at the of my game and we were fighting with the McAMS Yamaha. So now I’ve come here for round two and everyone expects me to go and be doing that again but the pace has got faster. 

"We’ve got a new bike and so there’s a lot of factors that kind of put the pressure on us, and also it was harder. I’m happy with how the weekend turned out. 

"I think I’ve learned that after crashing in the second race, I’ve just learned that I’m going to have to be a little bit more patient."

Could greater potential with the new Ducati result in Bridewell having a say in the championship fight?

Bridewell is traditionally a rider who comes good as the season goes on, and if the bike has a ‘bigger window’ to work in as he suggests, then there’s no reason why he can’t be a factor.

Discussing the bike as a whole, Bridewell added: "The potential of the bike is very strong but we need to understand the window that the bike likes to be working in. It’s a bigger window but it’s about trying to get it in there first. 

"We made a really bold change for race three and it was better, still not right, but better. But crashing out of the earlier race, I just lost that last five to six laps of data for tyre wear. 

"To be honest, when I caught Brad [Ray] I looked at my dash and saw 1m 35.1s and was like this is slow from the pace we’ve been doing all weekend. 

"But when I got past him, if I’m honest, I really struggled to go quicker just because I lost the rear tyre. Lee then came by and I could see the grip he had and there was just nothing I could do."

Wrong direction for two-time BSB champion Brookes

After a good first race in which he finished fourth, Brookes once again found it difficult. 

The MCE Ducati rider could only manage tenth in race two, before turning that into eighth for race three. The problem? A set-up change that took the bike’s performance ‘backwards’. 

"The second race was disappointing as we made the wrong changes to the bike, and it just didn’t work out," claimed Brookes. "I went backwards and faded pretty much from the start, so it was disappointing for all concerned. 

"We put the bike closer to how it had been yesterday and had the information to make only a small change and the bike worked better albeit not with the lap times to compete for the podium. 

"It was obviously difficult starting a long way back on the grid too, but I was happy to recover some form at the end. We definitely need to make improvements with the bike as we’re running at a similar pace to 2019 and 2020 but things have obviously moved on since then."