Marco Melandri was expecting to be a title contender this season, but the Italian between his shoulder problems at the start of the year and finding a feeling with his BMW, has seen the podium only six times in fourteen races – with two race victories.
The difficulties that Melandri is encountering and the fact that he is already 53 points adrift from Tom Sykes in the standings has made him think twice about renewing with BMW for another season In an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport, Melandri told the Italian sports newspaper: “The 2013 developments on the bike aren’t working and we’ve gone backwards, while Kawasaki has made a large jump forward” and “I’m currently in talks with Kawasaki and Aprilia.
”The Japanese and Italian marques are at the moment the best machines on the grid, with Aprilia currently leading the manufacturers championship ahead of Kawasaki and BMW.
Melandri raced for Hayate (a disguised Kawasaki) in MotoGP in 2009 when the Japanese manufacturer officially pulled out MotoGP, but kept a bike on the grid in order to avoid going to court with Dorna, and he won the 250cc World championship with Aprilia in 2002, when he was just 20 years old.
It would be interesting to know which rider Aprilia would like to replace, Sylvain Guintoli or Eugene Laverty.
Guintoli and Laverty are currently second and third in the championship, with the Irishman having four wins compared to Guintoli’s one, but the Frenchman has definitely been more consistent and is just 6 points from Tom Sykes.