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Second-placed Sykes 'still has massive list of things to do'

Amazingly, given how little time it took to assemble, the new BMW Motorrad WorldSBK four-cylinder effort took Tom Sykes to second place overall after two days of official testing at Phillip Island.

Only the red rocket of Alvaro Bautista and his Ducati eclipsed the pace of Sykes and the new S1000RR. It was astounding to see both new bikes so potent so early, but can Sykes replicate that second place overall for a podium finish at PI on race weekend? Is it realistic?

“It is still too early to know it but I am here to be competitive and I am sure everybody inside the BMW garage is thinking the same,” Sykes told bikesportnews.com. “There is no denying how fresh the project is but ultimately we want to be competitive.

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“Coincidentally, this test before race weekend has shown a little bit of that. I won’t get ahead of myself and I know what we need to do. All I will do is try my best in the race weekend and see where we line up.”

Even though it is not quite finished as a 100 per cent finalised race package, Sykes feels it is only missing out in some specific and obvious areas of performance already.

“I think everybody has seen the speed trap times, so there is obviously still work to be done in that respect,” said the 2013 World Champion. “But considering how fresh the project is, we need to find something, mainly in the straights.

“Credit to the bike, the team and maybe to myself, it is clearly working through the corners, because of the lap times. I am really impressed and happy with the structure they have put together for these two days of testing.

“We have had a massive list of things to do but it was quite easy to put a race run on the tyres but I kind of sacrificed that in order to get through the majority of the fundamental test plan. This has proven quite good because we have made some quite big changes to the parameters of the S1000RR. We have gained a lot of valuable info on how well these two days have gone, considering our potential in the previous tests as well.”

Sykes feels the team has already arrived on a solid foundation for machine setup. “I would say that we have found some kind of base package on this bike that gives me a smile because to be in the ballpark on four different circuits now, I would say that we are somewhere where we need to be moving forward. It is quite a surprise where we ended up, to be honest, because we were not looking for the lap time in that respect. It just came naturally and I am enjoying riding.”

Sykes, grinning from ear-to-ear, said there is only one place at PI that the bike is not working the way it could yet, but in one other place it is already working at a high potential.

“The mid-sector, where you need big melons, we are doing pretty well,” laughed Sykes. “Through the Hayshed and that area, I am not shy when it comes to there. The worst area is the straight. A couple of the guys in the box were thinking that the last sector was not as sharp as it could be, but I said, “Don’t worry, we are missing a little bit down the straight,” which is the last sector.

Sykes had no direct answer when asked just how much his bike was up to full WorldSBK spec right now. “Wrong person to ask but I think there is plenty more in the tank,” said Sykes. “When you take into account when the green light was given on this project, the time to do a lot of research into the tuning aspect of it was quite limited.

“But it’s probably not my place to say too much. But what I will say is that when the green light was given, and where we are now, I think it is absolutely incredible. Given my experience I would probably say that nobody else could have done it any better than the guys have done. To turn up in PI, with all the parts and the spares and be probably as a competitive as we are? But it is too early to say over race distance.”

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