As he prepares for the first World Superbike round of 🅺2017, Tom Sykes believes he is "close to where weꦕ need to be" after spending the winter testing period adapting his riding style to the needs of Kawasaki's ZX-10RR.

The Englishman has ackno⭕wledged in recent weeks that a move away from his late-braking style to a more flowing approach - more in line with team-mate Jonathan Rea's way of attacking a corner - was necessary to extract the maximum from his 2017 package.

New regulations stipulate that World Superbike engines can no longer run batteries, and the subsequent changes to Kawasaki's engine cha🎐racter meant Sykes could no longer brake late and square꧅ the corner off as he pleased.

Quipping that the change has been a 'ball-ache', and has taken much adjustment, the 31-year old is nonetheless con🉐fident that Kawasaki has suitably reacted to the ominous threat posed by Ducati 🍬in the second half of 2016.

"I mean it's a ball-ache," smiled Sykes after his KRT squad's te😼am𝓰 presentation in Barcelona on Thursday.

"🎶Basically it goes against what I believe in my style. Unfortunately many things have changed and I have to take a step back. It's more of a, let's say, riding style than a racing style and it's taken some getting used to.

ไ"I feel we've done some﷽ good work on this and got a lot of information during winter testing. I hope now we can go and continue in the same way for Phillip Island and the rest of the season.

"In the past when I was racing I was able to brake later, stop faster, turn the bike faster and then exit faster. But now I have to think more in advance. I have to brake a bit earlier. I have to go a little more ♛easy in the corner and keep the speed. Really it's a more flowing style. That's the way to describe it.

"In some areas I don't believe this but it's a style that 🌱we need to do🎐. The characteristics of our bike are not so towards what they were in the past. We need to make some changes and try and fight with Jonathan.

"His riding style and this ZX10-RR, along with the changes in the rules, are in great harmony. It's basic🌊ally trying to react to this and be s💮tronger.

"I've been working on it during all winter testing. Just trying to recover the lap time after a certain amount of laps. I feel like we've done a good job. It'ဣs always di꧂fficult to tell in winter because the track conditions are very cold.

"Everything becomes easie🎐r and faster so we'll only really see when we get into the mix and get into the ra🌼ce conditions."

On the changes Kawasaki has made to ꦏthe bike over the winter period, Sykes continued: "There are a lot of really small things, like a little bit more power... stuff like this.

"It's only a very small🌸 increase in power but finally the small increase is a big benefit on track. Really, stuff like this and fine tuning the bike really. ꦿI feel like we're quite close to where we need to be and now we just need to keep working. Ducati did a great job last year and I feel we've reacted quite strongly. Hopefully this is enough."

Finding himself powerless to stop Chaz Davies marching to an impressive seven wins from the final eight outings at the close of '16, Sy♌kes says both he and Kawasaki recognised the need to react to the threat posed by the Bologna factory.

For him, the re🍬sults in the subsequent months have been positive. "Honestly speaking, Jonathan won the championship last year," said Sykes.

"The personal opinion of mine is that without the mistakes of Chaz - he's done it two years consecutive now and also last year -, without those mistakes, with the crashes he had, he was probably the one that could have won the championsh🌞ip.

"Considering the summer break Ducati were very clever. I'd say the most clever of the manufacturers and they did a really important test and almost embarrassed ev𓄧erybody. Except for the wet race in Germany, if the second race was 30 minutes sooner, then Chaz would have ওwon eight races from eight. That would have been pretty special.

"So he's probably the reference at the moment. Like I say he'll look to start the season at least as strong as he⛎ finished, if not stronger. But the question is, have Kawasaki - Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea - done enough in the winter. I think the answer is yes. I think we've really addressed some small limitations we had and made things a little bi💙t easier."