Somkiat Chantra was able to make his WorldSBK debut with Honda during this week’s Jerez test (26–27 November), but is wanting more experience on the bike.

Fortunately for the Thai rider, who – along with Jake Dixon – will make his debut in WorldSBK with Honda next year, he will get the chance in the beginning of next year with two European tests planned before the paddock heads to Australia for round one.

For now, he is finding the Honda “difficult”, but feels this will improve as his experience builds.

“Now my goal is I need to do more laps with the bike and get more feeling with the Pirelli tyres because I was quite difficult to brake, to [lean], and to stop the bike,” Chantra said, speaking to WorldSBK.com after the two-day Jerez test. 

“For me, now it was quite difficult. But I need to do more laps and try to have a really good confidence with the front and I think we can push more next year.”

Chantra ended the test 10th-fastest on the timesheets, ahead of his teammate Dixon who finished 12th. He felt it was a “completely different” feeling to the RC213V MotoGP bike he’s raced this year.

“The MotoGP bike and CBR1000RR-R are quite different, it’s completely different,” Chantra said.

“I feel the MotoGP is more controlling. 

“But on a test, this time, we also tried to use the power mode and the TC and the engine brake similar to MotoGP, and also today was on a good way. 

“We need time to work on this again and we go step-by-step.”

He added: “We worked on quite many things with the team, and also on me I was trying to learn the bike and also try to learn the tyres. 

“We tried quite many laps and tried to understand everything on the bike and try everything in the correct way. Day-by-day we were really happy, we started to improve the lap time and also day-by-day we were trying something, and everything [we tried] was always a positive thing. 

“We were happy about this, and also time for the test rider also to test something and give something to us. When we tested that, also it was improving.”