Honda's Alvaro Bautista believes he and the HRC squad will be disadvantaged by the shortened 2020 WorldSBK season.
Riding a brand new and relatively-underdeveloped Fireblade, Bautista would like more time to get to grips with the aggressive CBR engine and also give his team more setup direction.
"Having less races is a disadvantage for us in terms of bike development of course. We need more time on track to reach maximum performance," said Bautista.
"On the other hand, I like and know the tracks where we will race very well, and they are also very close to my home. So I’m looking forward to it.
"To have a shorter and more intense calendar is a disadvantage for us. But I’ll try to be even more focused in terms of all the small details, giving the HRC engineers feedback that is as precise as possible in order to speed up bike development and, at the same time, trying to do our best whatever the conditions.
"Our initial target is to regain feeling with the bike. Then, if we have time, begin to prepare for the Catalunya round, because we have never raced there.
"And we might have some items that HRC has prepared following our feedback after the last outing, but I’m not sure we can test these at Barcelona, maybe we have to wait for the next time."
