Max Biaggi fans have never really gotten over the fact that their beloved Roman Emperor was exiled, banned, kicked out (chose whatever term you prefer) of MotoGP and despite their idol having won a World Superbike championship in the meantime and is always fighting for the lead in the WSBK standings, hasn’t squashed the crazy notion of some sort of revenge against the entire GP paddock.
Watching Biaggi’s former arch rival Valentino Rossi struggle on the GP12 during yesterday’s first day of testing at Jerez has given them immense satisfaction and and even more satisfaction seeing that Randy de Puniet on the Aprilia ART was a little more than a tenth of second from the Ducati factory rider and ahead of both Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham on the satellite Ducati’s.
These two factors haven given Biaggi fans the idea that he could really kick a lot of butts on the MotoGP grid if given one of Aspar’s CRT bikes, and want Aprilia to consider giving him a chance to ride at the Mugello GP in July as a wildcard, when the ART has undergone even further electronic development.
It’s a nice pipe dream, but we don’t think Gigi dall’Igna would ever allow Biaggi to wildcard especially if he’s fighting for the title, and the fact that the Italian GP is squeezed squarely between the Motorland Aragon and Brno Superbike rounds doesn’t help, but a MotoGP wildcard ride at the end of the WSBK season could satisfy everyone – including TV ratings, sponsors and give Italian journalists who are still divided in factions something to go crazy over – as their are four races left in the MotoGP season to chose from.