From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

New FPR race team manager Jack Valentine is confident that riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin will not be at a data disadvantage on their first trip to Qatar.

The FPR team fly out to Qatar this week for an official two-day WSBK winter test on Saturday and Sunday.

Only two riders, Norick Abe and Fonsi Nieto, will have actual experience of riding on the Losail circuit, during the first MotoGP event there last year.

But the information obtained during that event is expected to be shared by MotoGP teams with their Superbike equivalents.

Jack, however, believes that the advantage gained will be short-lasting. He said: “The good thing is that only a couple of riders have been there before and will only have an advantage for an hour or so as professional riders learn circuits very quickly. I would imagine that the Yamaha, Ducati, Honda, and the Kawasaki teams also, will have good data from their respective MotoGP teams but I am sure it will soon level itself out. The first day will be about the riders finding their way around the new circuit, then we will work on chassis set-up and suspension and it would be nice to find a race tyre.”