It is easy to forget that Leon Haslam was a WorldSBK Championship runner up once, partly because he has done so many other successful things in racing since, and especially because he finally got the BSB championship monkey off his back in 2018.
But in 2010, on a Suzuki, he was only bested by the combination of Max Biaggi and a much more race-focused official Aprilia V4.
With 217 full WorldSBK race starts to his name, five wins and 39 podiums, it is difficult to imagine that a class act like Leon has to re-learn anything too much on his WorldSBK return.
Electronics are the obvious biggest technical divergence from the BSB furrow he has been ploughing full time since 2015 (with the occasional WorldSBK wildcard ride and Suzuka 8-Hour starring role) but Haslam is learning as well as re-learning in WorldSBK. And learning fast.
He was third quickest in the recent Jerez tests, and on a race tyre package too, not on qualifying rubber.
As he said after the end of day two, “From a race tyre point of view I am really happy. I am a little frustrated because I messed up while using a qualifying tyre. I was less than a tenth off until the last split and then a made two mistakes on both the qualifiers that I used. So I was actually slower on the qualifiers, but the race tyre lap time was really positive. To finish third with a race tyre, I am really happy with that.”
On day one Haslam had a weird, partially resurfaced track to deal with, like all his peers, stopping his early progress as he waited for the track to bed in.
“I had a good idea and direction of what I want to try but I still feel like I’m at school, learning certain things to make it work the best way,” was how Haslam summed up his first 2019 day on track. “The feeling is where we were in November. We have never run Johnny’s setup. We started with his at Aragon and then tried Tom’s; I preferred that direction but now we have found somewhere pretty much in the middle. There is a window when the bike works and the boys know how that is.
"We haven’t played too much with the chassis because there’s not a massive amount things I’m looking for from a chassis point of view, it’s just understanding it for me to get the best out of it.”
Haslam knows that he is still in a transition period, getting used to electronic systems that offer greater performance if used to their full. “It is getting better. I understand how to ride it but sometimes it is against my natural style,” he explained. “I have to train the mind. Back in November, when I put a Q tyre in, I went back to my old ways of pushing in the wrong areas, which made it worse.
"On a race tyre, where I know how to manage it and get the most out of it, I’m actually much stronger. It is just about making it more natural on the bike and being consistent on how it works on making apexes and getting the bike upright: that is the key to what I need to find for the races. "Basically I am too fast on the way in and around the corner, which means I have too much lean angle for when I want to open the gas. Then the bike doesn’t accelerate. If you look at my throttle trace I should be faster than anyone by over a second but the fact that I am asking for too much with too much lean angle that doesn’t allow the bike to accelerate, so I’ve had to calm it down a little bit on the way in and to use the strengths of the bike.”
Haslam has already identified another benefit of changing his style. “When you ride that way it is a lot safer; you’re not asking so much of the front tyre and not pushing the front. Then the bike does accelerate strong when you get it off the edge of the tyre.
"I knew that was how it needed to be, but it’s not as straightforward as that. In some corners my style is better and in the majority of corners I am losing a lot for not doing too much wrong other than asking for the throttle to do too much, too soon with too much lean angle. It’s about understanding where and where not to push."
