Alvaro Bautista does not want to say “I sᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtop”🌳 - not yet, at least.

The Ducati ri༺der will be 40 years old if he chooses to sign a new contr🍸act to extend his career into next year.

Bu�ꦛ�t, he tops the World Superbikes standings after three rounds and has offered a new clue about what he intends to do in 2025.

“I don’t know as at the moment,” Bautista said. “I don’t have the feelin🥃g to say ‘I stop’.

“I’m just focused on recovering the feeling and enjoying it. I don’t feel pressure or that it’s🐬 my work, just relaxed and that it’s my hobby.

“I want to enjoy my hobby. The moment I wake up in the morning and don’t think, ‘I want to be a better ri🎃der’, I will stop.

“At🐎 📖the moment, I want to be better to enjoy the bike.”

Bautista added: “In the end, family is veꦇry important; especially now, as my daughters are bigger and they undersꩲtand more about my life, work and travels.

“But at the moment, my ౠfeeling is that they enjoy my world a lot. It’s always a big pleasure for me to keep racing and enjoying the time with them.

“However, it’s not only the family. I’ve been many years at a high level of competition, the age and there start to be more factors outside of ꦜthe family that can effect my future.

“There’s new rivals too but fortunately, I have good support from my family and friends and that’s important to keep me focused on rac🌺ing.”

'When you're younger, you recover sooner'

Bautista entered the 2024 WSBK season after being diagnosed👍 with nerve damage, sustained in a wildcard M💜otoGP appearance at the end of last year.

“Maybe when you’re younger, you recover sooner but it’s true that for me, I’d never had an injury like this ꦗin the past,” Bautista said.

“Fortunately, the 💜injuries I had before were like broken bones or൲ something like that where it is easy to recover.

“It’s a new kind of injury for me but in Spain, we sa﷽y ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’, so after this injury, I felt better because🌳 I had to work in another area of my body or in a different way.

“This 🌄injury made me feel like I’m improving myself and I discovered a new area where I can improve to be better. In the end, I took the positive thing of the injury.”

He added: “If you’d told me at the beginning of the season, before the first race and afte𓆉r the winter where my feeling with my bike and myself was not the best, that I’d be𒅌 leading the Championship after Round 3, I’d not be able to believe it.

“It’s been a good surprise to lead the Champions♒hip after ꧒a strange weekend in Australia and the tricky conditions at Assen, where I struggled before in the cold and wet.

ဣ“Right now, I want to have a good feeling with the bike; it’s not the same feeling as last year so before thinking about the future, I want to recover the feeling and the feeling of being 100% at my best.

“Right n꧃ow, I feel like we are 85% or 90%. I keep racing because I enjoy it and because I’m doing my best but right now, I don’t think we’re in our best so first of all, I want to recover this feeling. Then, I’ll think about the future.”

Bautista is hoping to wi🧔n his third consecuᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtive WSBK championship this year.

“Winnin🐬g is always nice! To battle is always nic𝓰e too,” he said.

“I started last year by winning many races and also the whole year, it wasn’t like I had everything under control but more or less likeꦛ ‘if I do this, this and this, I can win the race’, as I knew the rivals really well.

“However, this year is different. The riders are different, the level is ℱdifferent, I started with the physical problem and this year, I don’t know why but I feel more motivation and more eagerness to work harder to be better.

“I feel the level is higher so if I want to be competiꦑtive now, I have to work harder – but it’s not a ‘motivation’, it’s because Iꦺ want to be competitive so I need to work more.

“It’s not like other riders where if they win and if they face difficulties, think that ‘I’ve done many years so I’ll stay at home, I don’t need to keep working and trying to improve my ways’; for me it’s🍌 different.

“That’s what is happening this year with all the changes; it has given me more 🎃confidence in my work to try and reach the best performance.”