While Alvaro Bautista and Aruba.it Ducati have already celebrated WorldSBK title success, the Spaniard is not resting on his laurels in Australia.

2022’s final round kicks off on Friday and Bautista is aiming to conclude his championship-winning season by preparing his defence for the new year, with Phillip Island returning to its typical February season-opener spot once again in 2023.

“Basically, we tried to celebrate as much as we could,” Bautista said of Sunday at Mandalika. “We had a team dinner on Sunday night, some beer, the guys from the team and not only me! After that, a lot of flights to come here so not a lot of time to celebrate in a good way.

“In any case, the important thing is we got the title and after this weekend we have more time to celebrate with my friends, my family. We have to keep focused to the last race of the weekend, to keep working here like we did in the rest of the rounds. After this, we have more time to celebrate!

“This weekend, I think, is more important than everybody thinks because they say it’s the last round, you have to be relaxed, you already won the title… but, for me, it’s important because all the data, all the good feelings we can get from this weekend, will be very important for next season because it’ll be the first round of 2023. We’ll try to be focused, try to get all the data possible, try to have as much performance as we can because it’ll be important to start next season as strong as possible.”