Axel Bassani’s first test of the Kawasaki: “Completely different to Ducati!”

• Pre-2024 Jerez WorldSBK Test results - Tuesday

He was 10th-fastest overall on a rain-disrupted day, clocking a top time of 1’41.801s.

Bassani was 1.964s slower than Remy Gardner, who was fastest on Tuesday, but was only six tenths behind new teammate Alex Lowes.

“It’s going well,” he said after his first day as a factory rider. 

“I’m happy and I feel good with the team. We did some laps with the team this morning. 

“It’s not easy to change but I feel good with the bike, and I enjoyed it. It’s completely different from the Ducati. 

“Step by step, I’ll try to understand the new bike with no pressure. 

“I don’t want to be really fast immediately, but I want to understand the bike and team really well and afterwards, we will see.”

Bassani will work with crew chief Marcel Duinker in 2024. Duinker was alongside Lowes last year, but Lowes will switch to working with Jonathan Rea’s ex crew chief Pere Riba.

More significantly perhaps, changing a Panigale V4 R for a ZX-10RR means changing a V4 for an inline-4 engine.

“Everything is different,” Bassani said. 

“It’s a completely different bike. They have two wheels but they’re completely different! 

“It’s okay, I like it. It’s good, I like the people inside the box. I feel good with my new crew chief. 

“I have to speak a lot of English, which isn’t easy for me, but it’s good for learning!”

He said ahead of Wednesday, the final day of the Jerez test: “We’ll try to change something on the bike. 

“I hope, tomorrow, the weather will be much better and also the track. This morning was really difficult to ride. There were a lot of patches of water on track.”