Photo: motogp.com
Even though the 6-time world champion Max Biaggi has hung up his leathers and retired from the professional racing scene, his ties with the road racing division of Aprilia look like they’ve never been severed. The Corsair will be back on Aprilia racing machinery for another test at the iconic Mugello circuit.
Max Biaggi confirmed the test himself in a personal tweet, but has not offered more info on what bikes he will be riding, but most rumors indicate that he will continue developing the World Superbike-spec Aprilia RSV4 Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli are riding. Even if Biaggi is more of an occasional test rider for Aprilia’s road racing division, the feedback he can provide is definitely a most valuable asset for the engineers and mechanics, thanks to his huge track experience.
Not sure how much has he contributed to the current 2014 machine, but Guintoli is faring quite well in the WSBK ranking, being in the second position with 212 points, within striking distance of the Kawasaki leader Tom Sykes who has earned 251 points. His team mate Marco Melandri sits in 5th, even closer (20 points) from Honda’s Jonathan Rea.
Some paddock whispers also say that Biaggi will also ride the ART MotoGP prototype again, adding to the data Aprilia is gathering to sort things out before making a full-factory entrance in MotoGP, a move rumored to be made in 2016. After Gigi Dall’Igna left Aprilia for Ducati, the house of Noale brought in Romano Albesiano to develop a new prototype which should wear a factory livery.
As far as we know now, Aprilia Racing Team is working on porting the Magneti Marelli ECU software on the bike and is having its technicians used to it. However, Albesiano is supposed to come up with a completely new bike early in 2015, and all the developments on the current machine are said to be embedded in the new prototype, which will thus not start from scrap, so to speak.
Since 2016 brings a spec software for all the teams on the grid and all of them are expected to contribute to the “unified version” of the ECU code, it is only natural that Aprilia wants to learn as much as possible on how the Marelli software does work with the ART engine and will try to come up with the most favorable solutions. Read this autoevolution story on how the ECU software is being prepared.
So that’s why we have solid reasons to believe that Aprilia will be doing a lot of testing with the best riders it can afford, and we might see more of the Corsair having fun aboard the MotoGP prototypes, possibly becoming an official test rider for the Noale factory in the end. Does this also mean wildcard appearances?
Not sure how much has he contributed to the current 2014 machine, but Guintoli is faring quite well in the WSBK ranking, being in the second position with 212 points, within striking distance of the Kawasaki leader Tom Sykes who has earned 251 points. His team mate Marco Melandri sits in 5th, even closer (20 points) from Honda’s Jonathan Rea.
Some paddock whispers also say that Biaggi will also ride the ART MotoGP prototype again, adding to the data Aprilia is gathering to sort things out before making a full-factory entrance in MotoGP, a move rumored to be made in 2016. After Gigi Dall’Igna left Aprilia for Ducati, the house of Noale brought in Romano Albesiano to develop a new prototype which should wear a factory livery.
As far as we know now, Aprilia Racing Team is working on porting the Magneti Marelli ECU software on the bike and is having its technicians used to it. However, Albesiano is supposed to come up with a completely new bike early in 2015, and all the developments on the current machine are said to be embedded in the new prototype, which will thus not start from scrap, so to speak.
Since 2016 brings a spec software for all the teams on the grid and all of them are expected to contribute to the “unified version” of the ECU code, it is only natural that Aprilia wants to learn as much as possible on how the Marelli software does work with the ART engine and will try to come up with the most favorable solutions. Read this autoevolution story on how the ECU software is being prepared.
So that’s why we have solid reasons to believe that Aprilia will be doing a lot of testing with the best riders it can afford, and we might see more of the Corsair having fun aboard the MotoGP prototypes, possibly becoming an official test rider for the Noale factory in the end. Does this also mean wildcard appearances?
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