Alvaro Bautista has branded a call from Scott Redding to introduce a minimum weight limit to the WorldSBK Championship as ‘stupid’ amid a debate over whether a rider’s size is having too much of an effect on performance.
In an interview with GPOne, Redding - while stressing he was not making a personal jibe at Bautista himself - said the Spaniard has a ‘clear advantage’ in a straight line on the Aruba.it Ducati Panigale V4 R compared with title rivals Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha R1) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR).
At 5ft 5in (1.69m) and weighing 56kg (8.8 stone) without his riding gear, Bautista is considerably smaller than most of his rivals, especially Redding at just over 6ft.
The comparison between the two riders is sharpened further by the fact Bautista made his WorldSBK debut with Aruba.it Ducati in 2019 before Redding replaced him in 2020 for two seasons. Bautista has since returned in place of BMW-bound Redding with the 37-year old showing an impressive turn of speed with six wins and 12 podiums so far this year.
However, Redding opines Bautista is gaining an unfair advantage in a straight line as a result of his lower weight, leading the Briton to call on regulators to introduce a minimum weight to help larger riders like himself, Razgatlioglu and Loris Baz.
“If I was 20kg less I would have been world champion 2-3 times in my career,” he told GPOne.com.
“Bautista is the favourite, but what is happening is not right in my opinion. Alvaro has a clear advantage over the other riders. Just look at how far Rea and Toprak are on the limit. Bautista has an impressive lead on the straight and this is not right.
“In my opinion, Toprak is more talented but he loses a lot on the straight and it is not right for him to be penalised in this way, as well as Johnny.
“We would need a bike and rider weight limit as happens in all other categories (except MotoGP) or in F1. I am not here to point the finger at Alvaro, but this is what I think.”
However, Bautista plays down his rival’s petition, branding it ‘stupid’, before suggesting Redding should lose some muscle weight to improve his straight line performance.
"To me it’s just pushing. For me, you always want more speed," Bautista told reporters at this weekend’s Donington Park WorldSBK round.
"Look at Aleix Espargaro; he’s very tall like Scott [Redding] and he’s very hard on his training and his weight is maybe six kilos more than me.
"If Scott wants to be faster on the straight then you just have to lose some muscle. But then you have to move the bike with less muscle and less strength so you have positive and negative points in my case.
"For me, it’s a stupid thing to put a minimum weight with a bike with this weight. We don’t use the full power of these bikes in most of the races. It’s a stupid thing."
