Marco Melandri may have ended up third in the 2012 World Superbike standings but he was the first rider after BMW’s debut in the series in 2009 to bring the BMW S1000RR to victory, and he did it six times, at Donington Park, Miller Motorsports, Motorland Aragon, a double victory at Brno and then at Moscow.
For the 2013 season BMW has turned their factory effort over to BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK, but they will still continue to support the team with engine and electronic development.
Despite the six victories and five podiums in 2012, the Italian rider isn’t completely satisfied with the performance of his machine weekend after weekend, as he told the SBK website: When works well it works very well, but that it maybe has a smaller window of perfection than some other machines.
I think our bike is a very good bike but, like you say, the window to make it work and give you good confidence is very small.
When you are inside this window you can be fast and it looks easy.
When something is not perfect and you go out of this window you fight with the bike sometimes.
I think this is the main place where we have to work, to make the bike easier.
We knew this before the season, we know now.
The first year was to try to understand what we have to do more on the bike.
So for the first year, for sure we did more than was expected last season.
”When asked if he can repeat his sucess in 2013 with the new team, he said, “I think everything is a package.
Rider, team, bike, factory – all together.
For sure the rider may be on top and he must try to stimulate and push the team and give the right information.
Then the team has to push the factory and the factory has to understand the information an what to do with the bike.
I think it is always teamwork.
Alone, the rider or team or factory cannot do this.
”Will Melandri be able to win the championship next season?