The Be Wiser Ducati British Superbike Championship Team of Shane Byrne and Glenn Irwin have completed a hectic week of testing in Spain, whereby both riders reported good progress despite not having the best of weather.

Four-time MCE BSB title winner 'Shakey' and rookie team-mate Irwin were in action at Cartagena last week before venturing to Guadix this week, where the emphasis was very much on continuing the development aboard the fully factory-supported Be Wiser Ducati Panigale Rs rather than concentrating on setting fast lap times.

With the latest phase of the development programme successfully completed, the team's attentions now turn to the official BSB tests at Silverstone and Donington Park later this month prior to the season starting at Silverstone on April 8/10th.

Shane Byrne: 

"We were a bit off the pace in Cartagena and some people were making out it was a disaster, but we had our plan of attack and that wasn't to go out there and set blistering lap times. We found a few areas where we needed to improve the bike after the previous test and we worked on those. I'm glad we had a couple of minor issues as it allowed us to concentrate on sorting those which is more important than being on the top of the timesheets right now. Guadix proved to be very challenging as we lost so much track time due to the very cold weather, but yesterday when conditions were better, we got through loads of work and upped our pace. I did my fastest lap on well used tyres and we were in the ballpark times-wise. The plan throughout was not to stick our neck out for the sake of a quick lap, we let the others do that, but it was to make sure nothing went wrong. Overall, it was a really positive week's testing and I'm now looking forward to riding at the UK tracks and continuing the work which we plan there in readiness for the season starting."

Glenn Irwin: 

"It's still all about learning for me so my plan was to gradually build up and not do anything silly. I did lots of laps at both Cartagena and Guadix and the team got through a mountain of work. Conditions, especially at Guadix, kept me on my toes, but once I got the hang of the circuit, I was able to lap faster. We found a good setting yesterday and as a result, I felt really confident with the bike and was able to reduce my lap times consistently. However, today was freezing cold and even though I was one of the few riders venturing out on track, the change we made to the bike wasn't good as we went in the wrong direction. But we are not a million miles away and as Shakey said, it wasn't about putting record-breaking laps in over here; it was time developing this brand new bike. I'm now looking forward to the tests at Silverstone and Donington Park at the end of the month as they are tracks I know well and we don't have to factor that into the equation. There we can try to push on a bit to hopefully set us up for the opening round of the championship."