Miguel Oliveira’s WorldSBK debut has not got off to the start he was anticipating, making less progress than expected on the opening day of practice in Australia.

Oliveira moves to World Superbike from MotoGP, where he won five races, this year with the BMW team, replacing Michael van der Mark who won two races for the brand in five seasons.

The Portuguese rider was impressive in the Phillip Island test on 16–17 February, matching and beating his more experienced teammate Danilo Petrucci, but on the first day of the race weekend in Australia he was left slightly underwhelmed after the second practice.

“Not good, not bad,” Miguel Oliveira summarised, speaking to WorldSBK.com about his Friday practice.

“It was a very average day. We expected to make a small step in the afternoon with the bike.

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“I felt better on it, the team helped me to feel a little bit more comfortable with the electronics. But with the rear tyre we didn’t find much performance.

“At the end we tried a short Superpole Race [simulation] to just try to get the maximum performance from the tyres but it seems that there was nothing much there. 

“We need some homework this afternoon and come back stronger tomorrow.”

Oliveira clarified that he did feel more comfortable with the bike in FP2, even though he went slower than in FP1.

“I felt more comfortable with the bike in FP2, but I was faster in FP1,” he said.

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“That means probably there was something not really working well with the grip balance of the bike this afternoon and we need to check that in the data and come up with a solution for tomorrow FP3 before qualifying.”

Despite the lack of progress in terms of lap time on Friday, Oliveira is still hopeful of fulfilling his pre-weekend goal of finishing in the top-five.

“I think the realistic target would be a top-five,” he said. “Let’s see if we can achieve more than that but at the moment it looks very difficult. 

“Also, the conditions seem to be changing for Sunday, so it will be interesting also how we react to that and how the bike behaves. 

“But, all in all, I feel good, feel relaxed, and I think we have a chance tomorrow to do a good job.”

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