Australian contender Josh Brookes ended his opening pre-season test at Cartagena knowing that there is still much more to come from the McAMS Yamaha ahead of the opening races of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park this Easter weekend (March 31 – April 2).

2015 champion Brookes admitted that the changing conditions on the final day of the test at the Spanish circuit had hampered their scheduled programme, having methodically worked through a range of different chassis set-ups before they were due to turn their attention to engine braking strategies.

Brookes said:

“We used the test to go through general chassis set up and suspension related, so we could document and try a variety of changes. We got into a range where I felt the bike was working really well, but that said, there is still a lot of work to do on the engine braking side of things and I think we started out with the bike already in a good range. Because of that it got put to the side a lot during this test because it wasn’t a priority as it was in a good range, but it is only now that the rest of the bike has been tuned to a point where that is the next area of adjustments we can make now.

“That was then due to be on the final afternoon because it took so long, as we had been making a lot of changes and that took time. It really pushed any engine brake set-up changes we wanted to do right until the end and we had hoped to use the final two hours of the last afternoon to focus on that. It was just at the window when the first changes had been made, I went out on track and it started raining, so we got a couple of runs at the end, but it didn’t give us anything better than we already had, but it highlighted an area that needs work.

“It is a positive bike to ride but if we are going to find a better feeling that is what we need to address. It was a bit frustrating to not have gone as fast as some of my rivals, but we know there is still more work to be done.”