MotoGP

BMW continue as official MotoGP Safety Car suppliers

With a collaboration dating back over six years to 1999, BMW will continue its support of the MotoGP World Championships with an agreement to supply the Safety Cars for the series for another four seasons up to 2009. At the Jerez circuit in southern Spain on Tuesday, the President of BMW M, Professor Ulrich Bruhnke, signed an agreement with Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, as he handed over the keys to MotoGP’s new vehicles. Each of MotoGP’s seventeen events will be escorted by a powerful and stylish BMW fleet, consisting of a BMW M5 and BMW M6. Furthermore, as in the previous two seasons, BMW will support an additional level of competition in the MotoGP class with the BMW M Award. This award will see the fastest rider at March 5th’s MotoGP Official Test at the Catalunya Circuit in Spain take home a brand new BMW Z4 M Roadster. Then throughout the season, the rider who accrues the lowest qualifying times total including his time from the Official Test, will drive away with a BMW Z4 M Coupé. As part of the link-up, BMW will also provide Dorna, the organiser and commercial rights holder for the MotoGP World Championships, with a broader selection of BMW cars for organizational purposes.

 

Milan, Italy, 28/2/2006

CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM UNVEILS FINAL LIVERY WITH SPECTACULAR SHOW IN ITALY

With exactly one month to go before the first race of the new MotoGP season, the
Camel Yamaha Team today celebrated the start of its 2006 campaign with a Team
Presentation in Milan, in front of 300 guests and international media. World
Champion Valentino Rossi and his American team-mate Colin Edwards, who was
celebrating his 32nd birthday today, were joined on stage by VIP guests from
Yamaha and Japan Tobacco International, as well as Italian TV presenter Marco
Mazzocchi, who compered the presentation.

The bikes were uncovered by the Festi group of acrobats, who descended from the
roof to reveal the M1s of Rossi and Edwards in their final 2006 livery. Mazzocchi
then welcomed Masao Furusawa, Executive Officer for Engineering Operations at
Yamaha Motor Company and Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing Srl,
onto the stage.
"Even though the basic M1 concept for 2006 is the same", commented Furusawa,
"this is a more sophisticated bike, especially with the increasing RPM of the
engine. It is very important for the progression of the bike to keep Valentino and
Colin together, as they are not just riders for us, but a key part of the
development of the M1."

"Last year we got everything right with this team," added Jarvis. "The rider
combination, the bike and every other element. Now our goal with our new title
sponsor Camel is to achieve all this once again and win the championship."

Roberto Zanni, European Regional President for Japan Tobacco International, spoke
about the exciting new partnership between Camel and Yamaha. "The feeling has been
very good with Yamaha right from the beginning. Everything is very professional
but also very friendly, it's a good atmosphere. I expect that the passion this
year within this team will be very great and with two riders as successful as
Valentino and Colin, we can expect great things."

Davide Brivio, the Team Director for the Yamaha Factory Team for the fifth year
running, then took to the stage to talk about his goals for the season. "I think
that everybody will really like the new livery, and especially the riders' numbers
on the white squares. We needed to come up with something original for the livery
without moving away from the Camel yellow, which we all really like, and now I
think this final livery is going to look really spectacular on track. For the
season, we're ready! We've done some important and successful tests, and now we
will just make the most of the six remaining days of testing before the first race
to make some final improvements to the new M1."

The audience was then treated to a spectacular video of the team and riders,
before Rossi and Edwards mounted the stage together for their part in the day.
"This new bike is really beautiful!" exclaimed Rossi, who this season aims to win
a sixth consecutive World Championship title. "It's exciting to be starting
another season with Yamaha; these last two seasons together with them have
probably been the best of my career. It's also nice to be with Colin again, we're
very close in our team. The new M1 is already very good and we've been working
very closely to develop it with Yamaha. Yamaha has done a very good job. This year
I have many new young adversaries who will be challenging me, and I think there is
going to be some spectacular racing!"

His team-mate Edwards, seeking to improve on his fourth-place in the championship
last year, said "I really like the new bike design, it looks really great. I had
the retro-style number five like this on the bike at Laguna Seca last year and
I've used it again for this year. The new bike in general has been fantastic
throughout the winter tests, I'm really excited. Yamaha has done a great job and
everything about it feels better than last year. I honestly can't wait to get back
on board this week in Barcelona, we have a few things to work on still but we're
in good shape. My promise for the year is to win at least a few races and have a
one-two for the Camel Yamaha Team at the end of the year!"

 

Suzuki have revealed the new livery which will adorn the GSV-R 2006, with the distinctive 'Rizla blue' colour of their new sponsor taking pride of place. As part of a two season title sponsorship deal with Rizla –the market leader in cigarette papers- the team with which Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins will ride in the World Championship will now be known as Rizla Suzuki MotoGP. An Official Team Launch Presentation will be held at the Circuit De Catalunya on Thursday 2nd March at 7pm, with journalists gathering in hospitality facility for an event which includes the official public unveiling of the all-new 2006 specification Rizla Suzuki GSV-R XRE4. Team Manager Paul Denning expressed his delight with the new deal in a statement. "This is an exciting and significant step forward for Suzuki in MotoGP, and for the Rizla Suzuki partnership. Rizla is a colourful and exciting brand that fits in well with Suzuki's racing ethos and identity.


The added pressure of a sponsor to support Suzuki's racing programme will also bring a welcome impetus to improve performance both on and off the track” "Suzuki has been working with Rizla since 2002 in the British Championship and we are now very pleased to be extending the association to the worldwide stage in MotoGP. Rizla and Suzuki also have historical links, which include Kevin Schwantz making his Grand Prix debut aboard a Rizla-backed RG500. Our dynamic and ambitious 2006 racers take to the track aiming to replicate the level of excitement and success that developed from there. I know that with the dedication and commitment of Suzuki and the support of Rizla and everybody involved, we can now take the team to a much-improved level throughout 2006”

 

Edwards drives away in new car after Catalunya success

Spain, Circuit de Catalunya
5/3/2006


Camel Yamaha Team rider Colin Edwards clinched the first MotoGP accolade of 2006
as he charged through treacherously wet conditions at the Catalunya Circuit to the
fastest time of the 40-minute MotoGP Official Practice and the prize of a brand
new car. After a brief appearance in this morning's dry free practice, Edwards
emerged with a string of fast laps at the end of the afternoon session to usurp
his otherwise dominant team-mate Valentino Rossi, who was unable to respond with a
late effort of his own after a falling whilst leading the time sheets on his
twelfth lap.

Today's success concludes a positive weekend for Yamaha, which saw Rossi set the
pace in dry conditions on Friday and Saturday, with Edwards and Carlos Checa
(Yamaha Tech 3) in close attendance. The surprise of today's session was Checa's
team-mate James Ellison, who showed his prowess in the wet with the fourth fastest
time as he continued to adapt to the YZR-M1 machine. Checa also challenged for the
car today but, like Rossi, slid out of the session in turn ten, where Kenny
Roberts Junior's (Team KR) efforts also ended as he too mounted a challenge for
the fastest lap. The exciting curtain raiser to the season now gives way to three
more days of official tests at Jerez, starting next Friday, before the season
proper gets underway at the same circuit in three weeks' time.

Colin Edwards (1st, 1'57.102, 15 laps)
"When I saw the weather before the session started I thought to myself that the
car would end up in the hands of whoever was prepared to take the most risks. In
the end the times came quite comfortably and we were able to keep chipping away
throughout the session, just getting faster and faster, and to be honest I think I
could have knocked even more time off with another couple of laps. This is a
confidence boost for me but I have been saying since the last couple of tests that
we are in good shape and this proves it. The team have been working so hard to
come up with a bike that works out of the box and I believe we have that now. When
you have a bike like that and it works in the rain too, then you know you have
something special. It is nice to win the car but every rider out there wants to
win races. I feel I am in a position to do that this season."

Valentino Rossi (3rd, 1'59.360, 11 laps)
"After I saw that I could not win the car I thought the best thing was for Colin
to win it, so I am really happy for him. We have been working hard together over
the winter and he deserves this success. I was setting some fast lap times and my
pace was good but I made a mistake in braking and unfortunately that was the end
of my practice. Anyway the most important thing from this weekend is the way the
bike performed in the dry on Friday and Saturday and also in the wet today. This
gives us a lot of confidence for the season. Now we go to Jerez for another test
and it will be interesting to see if we have solved the problem we had with the
vibration. If we have done that, then we are ready for the first race."

Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"It is nice for the team to start the season by winning the first 'trophy'
available. It was a pity there wasn't a closer battle at the end between Colin and
Vale but the important thing is that the car ended up at Yamaha! We have had a
good winter of testing and now we head to Jerez to make the final preparations
before the first race."


Tech3 Yamaha rider James Ellison succeeded to occasionally challenge the top of
the classification charts today in the wet conditions, finally ending fourth
fastest and leaving Herve Poncharal to be one happy Team manager. Despite a crash
in today's session Checa's steady and fast performance also played testimony to
the great progress the team has made in the three-day test.

James Ellison (4th, 1'59.619, 16 laps)
"Overall I am really happy with how far we have come this weekend. I was a bit
disappointed with the weather today because we made some huge steps forward
yesterday and we had more plans for today, which we couldn't complete because of
the rain. In fact we learnt a lot yesterday and improved by about two seconds, so
who knows what we could have done today if the sun had shined! It was great to
come to a track I really like and to enjoy riding again after hitting something of
a wall in sepang. I've been more relaxed and have started to treat the bike a
little more like 'my' bike - letting it move around a bit more. The tyres are
generally feeling good for me. I tried some qualifiers yesterday but didn't really
use them to my advantage and my best times throughout the weekend have been on
race tyres. Anyway I was slightly praying for some rain at some point because I
know how good the Dunlops are in the rain. It was a real boost to see the number
77 at the top of the screens for some time today during the qualifying session!"

Carlos Checa (8th, 2'00.551, 13 laps)
"We're quite satisfied and working very well together in the team. This has been
a good test and we have worked hard on trying to improve the areas that we need
to. Obviously it's very encouraging to have been so fast all weekend and it seems
that the bike and tyres are working well here. The main area we have to
concentrate on is the performance of the tyres after a few laps. Over a short
distance everything is great but after six or seven laps it starts to get harder.
At the moment it's hard to say what will happen in the race. This is the reality
at the moment and it's something that Dunlop and Yamaha together are concentrating
very hard on. I hope we will have some new tyres to try soon. My fall in the
qualifying session was disappointing but it was the same for Valentino and Kenny
Roberts, we all fell in the same place. Anyway I am not hurt and this is the most
important thing. The M1 is very good although of course we have some more to do on
the setting, and we'll keep working at this next week in Jerez. Anyway I am very
pleased with the work we have done this weekend. We have a clear vision of where
we need to go and everyone is very happy and enthusiastic about the job we have.
We have a good base setting to work on throughout the season. We need to stay
focused on the job in hand and I am confident that the results will come."

Herve Poncheral - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director
"This weekend has been incredible; far, far beyond our expectations. So far we've
been to three tracks and the bike has behaved very well at all three. We've used
more or less the same base setting in each place and it's worked well each time.
This shows how good the M1 is and it has also allowed us to concentrate on tyre
testing, which is the most important thing for us right now. Tonight I am a very,
very happy Team Manager! We've been fast in the dry and in the wet. Carlos is the
best thing that could have happened to the Team. He's brought so much to us. He is
as enthusiastic as a beginner, but with all the talent and knowledge of
experience. He has helped everyone so much and he is the best possible thing also
for James. Before there was so much pressure on James, but now Carlos is showing
him the way and showing what's possible with this bike and our Dunlop tyres. James
has access to all Carlos' data and this weekend he has improved each day. He knows
what he has to do. We have the best possible combination between a young, talented
rider with a lot to learn but great potential and an older rider with great
experience who is hungry for results."


Official practice classification:
1. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'57.102
2. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'58.921
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'59.360
4. James Ellison (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1'59.619
5. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 2'00.001
6. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 2'00.218
7. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts, 2'00.225
8. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha, 2'00.551
9. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 2'00.621
10. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, 2'01.249
11. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 2'02.177
12. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 2'02.197
13. Alex Hoffman (GER) D'Antin Pramac, 2'04.003
14. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 2'05.073
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 2'05.961
16. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 2'06.724
17. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) D'Antin Pramac, 2'06.846
18. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 2'07.326
19. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati, 5.13.977


Catalunya Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 - 1'43.195
Catalunya Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005 - 1'42.337