IN
THE
WIND
P24
M
V Agusta Team Manager An-
drea Quadranti had one of-
ficial F4 RR superbike out at Jerez
over the five days of the World
Superbike team tests but had two
very different riders on it. Marco
Melandri rode the first two days
and Leon Camier the final three.
Overall, the target of the tests
was not just to improve the MV
as a race package at Jerez, but
make some more fundamental
discoveries.
"The main point was to get the
Leon Camier got
a run on his new
bike at Jerez as
MV looks to step
up next season.
new personnel acquainted with
the bike, the rider and things
like that. The second point was
also the electronics because
we had quite a few things to try.
We had nice inputs from Marco
and we then tried it on Leon's
bike and he liked it as well, so
we found some very interesting
things to develop. There were
small new parts to test but the
main development here was
that we found out exactly what
our situation is and what we
MV AGUSTA MOVING
FORWARD
want to do in the bike. We have
quite a few things to develop."
A new fuel tank, which re-
places the rear subframe and
helps stiffen the MV's alloy rear
chassis plates, was also tried,
with mixed results. Camier went
back to the regular system after
he used the new tank on Thurs-
day, for a time.
"We tried it in this test and
the concept is good but it is not
perfect how it is, so for that we
also need to go on with devel-
opment with the next test," said
Quadranti. "The balance of the
bike is better and we need to
lose some more weight. Last
year when we finished the race
we had the same weight as
when the others started!" he
joked. "Not that much, it is an
exaggeration, but as you could
see last year were lapping good
times in the last four laps of
every race. So, we want to find
out the way to be more com-
petitive in the beginning, the
first half of the race. Also we will
work on the engine, gearbox
and we have many things to
work on."
Gordon Ritchie
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
