Ten Kate Honda focus on CBR1000RR Fireblade development

Hannspree Ten Kate World Superbike team boss Ronald Ten Kate believes there are still significant improvements to be made to this year’s Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.

The reigning World Superbike champions only received bikes in January and had to develop the all-new 2008 spec machine from scratch.

So far the team have secured five podiums thanks to their riders Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari, but are yet to win a race and are sighting future development of the engine and chassis as the key.

Speaking to MCN Ten Kate said: “Heading to America for the next round I would say that the suspension and electronics on the bike are between 90 to 95% developed. We have more room to work on the engine.

“Currently I would say we are between 85 and 90%, but you have to remember that when it comes to racing motorbikes, you will never reach 100%.”

In the last round of the championship at Monza four different manufactures claimed a podium proving a good balance of performance between the makes in the class.

Ten Kate said: “We saw at the last race how all the manufactures have come to a point.

“For sure development will continue on each machine, especially the ones that had new bikes this year, but I don’t think there will be any real big surprises from now on.”