Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Marlboro Yamaha's Max Biaggi ever in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. During the 2001 season, Biaggi finished second to fellow Italian Valentino Rossi after a midseason run in which he finished on the podium six races in a row, taking three wins. A series of crashes toward the end of the season proved to be his undoing as Rossi simultaneously went on a tear, winning six of the last seven races in dominant style. Cycle News recently had the opportunity to sit down with Biaggi at the offices of Alpinestars in Torrance, California, where Biaggi was in town to film a television commercial and attend round three of the AMAlEA Sports Supercross series at Edison Field in nearby Anaheim. By BLAKE CONNER hirty-year-old factory Yamaha rider Max Biaggi shouldn't need much in the way of an introduction. After joining the 250cc World Championship full time in 1992, he won his first GP at Kyalami in South Africa, and went on to finish on the podium four more times, securing fifth in the World Championship. During his six seasons in the 250cc class, he scored 29 Grand Prix wins and 33 pole positions to make him the second most successful 250cc rider in history, behind German Anton Mang. He won his first three titles between 1994 and 1996 with the Chesterfield Aprilia team, and then underlined his talent by switching marques to retain the crown with Marlboro Team Kanemoto Honda in 1997. Biaggi stayed with Team Kanemoto for his debut season in the 500cc class in 1998, making an immediate impact as he dominated the seasonopening Japanese GP - becoming the first rider to win in his debut 500cc GP since the late Jarno Saarinen did so in 1973. Biaggi finished that first season in the championship second to Mick Doohan. Biaggi has gone on to win seven more 500cc races, and has amassed 15 pole positions in his four seasons in the premier class. Next year will see Biaggi aboard the new Yamaha M 1 four-stroke Grand Prix racer in what should prove to be one of the most interesting seasons 20 FEBRUARY 1 3, 2002' cue I ... n e THE FOUR-S I ROKE Are you satisfied with the way testing has gone so far in the off season? our bike is not ready to race, but with the modifications that I'm making to it, we will be able to test in the next two months. At the moment, I don't know if we're going to be on the top and ready for race one, or maybe later. The expectation is to try to find the best compromise for the engine and chassis for race one. It is very important in January and February that all the testing that we are going to do in Spain - that we will find some better settings with the engine and chassis. There is still a question mark, but we have a lot of meat to put on the grill. Q A _ s Max Blaggl poses with his new Yamaha M1 fourstroke Grand Prix bike. Q What do you think the four-stroke's strengths are compared to the two-stroke's? First of all, I think that the four-stroke has more potential than the two-stroke, of course. First of all, because the two-stroke [50 Os) are already 20 to 25 years old and they haven't improved that much in seven or eight years, and I think that more than 50 percent of that is tires. Of course, some manufacturers came out with a new motor, and made it much better. Four-strokes, I think, have a chance to use high technology; coming from Formula One [car racing], it will be the design of the future, because all the manufacturers are trying to link the racing and the commercial side. So I think the manufacturers will do everything that they can to make the four-stroke a winning bike. What do you think the four-stroke's weaknesses are compared to your two-stroke from last year? We are 15 kilograms [33 pounds) heavier, so this is already a weak point. But other than that, I think, maybe because I'm not used to riding the four-stroke, and I never have ridden a fourstroke, maybe now at the moment I believe there is too much engine-braking and thjs is the biggest Q

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