Aruba Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista is still discussing the potential of the Panigale V4 despite winning all three races at the Phillip Island WorldSBK opener. The former MotoGP man ran away with both championship races in Australia and banged bars with four-time champ Jonathan Rea in the sprint race before taking victory by a second.

“Australia was a dream weekend and I couldn’t have asked for a better start in World Superbike. In Thailand I got a good result last season in MotoGP, so I’m feeling confident but Buriram is a track that has different characteristics to Phillip Island because there are more mixed sectors,” said Bautista.

“For sure our rivals will be tough to beat, so we have to remain focused and work really hard during the weekend.

“Anyway we will go to Thailand with the same mentality, I know the right feeling with the bike now so I will try and find it there as well.”

Bautista says there is still a lot of work to do with the bike and believes the potental is high.

“The Panigale V4 is still a completely new bike, and the potential is high but we’ve got a lot of work to do to get it to 100 per cent.

“I don’t know if Buriram is a Ducati track or not, we’ll just have to see what happens.”