Andrea Locatelli was Yamaha’s best-performing rider in 2024, 🅠contending for wins in Phillip Island and scoring four podꦓiums during the season; but the Italian has work to do in the remaining days of the off-season.

Locatelli was one of several crashers on the wet second day of last week’s Jerez test, a test he used to begin regaining confidence with the YZF-R1 after a couple of m෴onths away from the track over the winter.

“These two days of testing in Jerez looks a bit complicated for the♉ track conditions and the weather conditions, because yesterday was fine but [the wind was strong],” Locatelli told WorldSBK.com.

“We will see, it’s just the first couple ꦿof days here in Jerez, we have two more days in 👍Portimao so we’re looking forward [to it].

“We need to rebuild a bit the feeling with the bike, but in any case we are ready to go again, so step-by-step we are workiﷺng and looking forward already to being in Portimao.”

He added: “Like always we tried to improve around myself and around the bike. For sure we have a lot of things to do. Unfo🃏rtunately, the testing is short and with these conditions it’s difficult to try and understand what is better.

“So, for the moment, we have a good base that 🧸we know, so we will keep working on this and then🎐 we will see.

“Phꦉillip Island will be a different track, we know very well the track, last year we were competitive, so we’re looking forward and we believe that we can do well from the start of the season.”

Before the paddock heads to 𒁃Phillip Island for the final test and the first race, there are two days of🍷 testing in Portimao coming up on 28–29 January.

“I hope to find good weather to try to ride a bit more on the bike, toಌ try to g🎶et more feeling, because also it is quite a complicated track,” Locatelli said, looking ahead to the test at the Portuguese venue.

“First of all, in this moment of the season, it’s important to ride and to have a good feeling with the bike. The conditions heﷺre in Jerez were not so good to make a good job, but in any case we make a lot of laps yesterday, we did a long run even in a difficult situation.

“In any ca🐻se, we believe that in Portimao we can keep doing our work, we will try to finalise the last couple of things around the♎ bike, and then we will try to prepare the best setting to arrive in Phillip Island ready.”