In his debut season in World Superbikes Marco Melandri ended up being the runner-up, but unfortunately for him Yamaha decided to withdraw their 2012 Superbike effort and he was forced to find a new team.
Yamaha team mate Eugene Laverty found a home with the Aprilia factory team, but for a while it seemed that Melandri was firmly tipped to be fielded next to Max Biaggi, albeit in an external tea, to avoid any conflict with the Roman Emperor, but according to an interview in yesterday’s Gazzetta dello Sport, the deal didn’t go through because “Biaggi’s contract excludes an Italian rider as a team mate“.
Opting for BMW Motorrad Motorsports team for 2012, Melandri brought with him five members of his former Yamaha crew said, “We don’t want to teach the Germans how to make motorcycles, we only want to transfer our experience.
We entered the pit garage on tiptoe, they’re curious to learn our work method, also adding “I saw enough during the first test with the S1000RR to realize that there will be a lot of difficulties.
One of the priorities will be to keep up the team morale when things don’t go well.
On a fast lap we’re still far away, but on a race distance I’m sure I can come up with more and I can’t wait to start.
” Despite having often dissed MotoGP, Melandri stated that even if he didn’t ask Yamaha he wouldn’t have minded a temporary return to the premier class, but only as a replacement rider for injured Jorge Lorenzo, “I would have liked to have filled in for Lorenzo in the last two races while he was injured.
It would have been a nice parting gift something that Yamaha owed me.
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