With the FIM releasing the number of teams interested in next year’s Moto1 and further details on CRT teams and Dorna’s Corrado Cecchinelli trying to explain them we can probably safely say that Marc VDS Racing Team and the Suter BMW bike will be moving towards MotoGP and take advantage of the new 2012 rules.
After MotoGP tested at Estoril on Monday, the Suter BMW Moto1 was on the same track on Tuesday and Wednesday, together with a several Moto2 teams who were carrying out more testing.
After the first shakedown test at Jerez de la Frontera six months ago, the Suter BMW bike has been further upgraded with a more powerful engine, Bridgestone tires (they used Michelin in the first test), carbon brakes and new electronics.
Taking the bike to track was Carmelo Morales, who is Suter’s official tester and reigning CEV Moto2 champion and Damian Cudlin, the reigning IDM Supersport champion who currently races in the IDM Superbike with a BMW S1000RR for Alpha Technik/Van Zon/Kraftwerk and is also an endurance racer for BMW Motorrad France 99 (which belongs to Michael Bartholemy, team manager for Marc VDS Racing) Cudling talking about the test said, “It took a little bit of time to adjust to the changes to the bike, mainly the Bridgestone tyres, the carbon brakes and the new electronics package, but I think we managed to work our way through the whole test program at Estoril.
The bike has certainly been improved since the Jerez test at the end of last year, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
Getting the electronics package working properly will be critical if the bike is to be competitive, and this is what we were focussed on during the second day.
We saw some improvements, and collected a lot of data, but we definitely need more track time if we’re going to get everything dialled in properly.
Overall it was a very positive test, and we leave Estoril with a very clear idea of the direction we need to take with the development of the bike.
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