Jona﷽than Rea’s teammate has set a lofty goal to win the s♒eason-opening Australian World Superbikes round this weekend.

Andrea Locatelli will be the only Pata Yamaha rider at Phill༺ip Island, after Rea injured his foot earlier this week during tes♛ting.

But Locatelli, who was seventh-fastest on Monday afternoon in testing in Australia, then third-fastest on Tuesday afternoon, has high 💃expectations.

“It was important, these two days, to get b♏ack the feeling we missed from the win♊ter tests,” he said.

“I am not 100% happy with the work that we’ve done. But we are happy 🃏with the race simulation.

“It looks like we 🥃can fight for the podium. My suggestion when I arrived was to just focus on winning.

“Why not? It’s a special track. I have more motivation thaཧn usual.

“I🥀 don’t want to fly, I want to be a realist, but🦩 I really feel that we can.

“I need to work a🌄 bit more but I have Friday to work on the bike a bit more. We have more data to compare.

“I’m confident for the weekend.

“I am not so happy because I’d like to ꦐbe P1, especially at this 🐼track.

“It 🅠would be a dream. I have m🗹issed it many times. Last year we were close to winning.

“I want to be on the podium, I want to wi𓃲n the race. Dreaming, maybe, but I want to.

“This is my objective. Until Sunday night I will push ▨on the throttle.

“I’m not happy because we are still missing a bit, but we can find something dur🌊ing the race weekend.”

WSBK rivals to beat?

Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega asserted himself as the man to be💝at, during testing earlier this week.

Champion Toprak Razgatliogꦅlu will be in action despite a heavy crash on Monday.

Locatell🐷i said about his r🍷ivals at the front: “It’s difficult to know or say. During the race weekend, the conditions will be different.

“There are many manufactu𒊎rers doing a really goo🅺d job.

“It will be difficult to win but, for us🦹, it is important to start this season in the best possible way.

“This can be an opportunity. I want to believe.”

Is the 2025 Yamaha better?

Locatelli compared his 2025 Yamaha 💃to last year’s version.

“It’s difficult to compare on this track becau🐻se we had two different tyres,” he said.

“Al🔯so, the ground was new last year. I feel like we’re still missing grip [compared] to last year.

“If I compare last year to this year, with the🥀se difficult conditions, we have made a 𝔉step forward.

“But it’s difficult to be 100% sure if it’s better or n🐈ot.

“Whatꦺ we have brought is not wrong! I believe in what we have. Wཧe are still working and can get more.”

Locatelli will take a new swi🎶ngarm into th꧟e season which he hopes will pay off.

“The swingar💖m was one of the big things to try in the winter but the weather didn’t help us,” he said.

“It’s wo🍎rking, at the moment. We🐭 are happy about this. Overall it worked on this track.

“With this, we will g🌄ain. With the older package, it [would have been🌠] wrong.

“With this, we will i🐷mprove. It is a good point for us.”