With six victories in FIM Superbike in 2012, BMW Motorrad is preparing for the 2013 season. Testing is currently underway at “Motorland Aragón” near Alcañiz, Spain. Test riders Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri are testing new components and setup on the bike. Of particular challenge are the new 17 ” tires.

[Official Release] After the rain-hit test last week at the Spanish Jerez circuit, BMW Motorrad scheduled two more days of testing this week at “Motorland Aragón” near Alcañiz (ESP). There the factory riders Marco Melandri (ITA) and Chaz Davies (GBR) continued the preparation for the 2013 FIM Superbike World Championship yesterday and today. Again the team was not too lucky with the weather conditions. Yesterday, Wednesday, and last night it rained again. This morning the track was still damp, but then it dried up. Therefore, at least this afternoon, the team found good conditions to continue its comprehensive testing programme. The highest air and track temperatures reached 17 degrees Celsius.

BMW Motorrad had taken numerous newly developed components for several areas of the BMW S 1000 RR to Alcañiz, which were evaluated by Marco and the team. His new team mate, Chaz, used the time to further familiarise himself with his RR. In total, Marco and Chaz completed 114 laps or 607 kilometres of testing on their RRs.

Rider: Marco Melandri
Bike: BMW S 1000 RR

“Actually it has been the first time we were able to ride for some hours in dry conditions. We tested some new components, but we still have a lot of work to do in order to make our bike work with the new 17 inch tyres as we struggled to ride fast lap times. So we hope for our next test at Jerez the weather will be good because we need three days of dry conditions in order to continue our work and improve our feeling with the bike.”

Rider: Chaz Davies
Bike: BMW S 1000 RR

“It has been challenging again due to yesterday’s weather. A few days ago the forecast said it would be bright sunshine and I was quite excited. But then we came to the track and it was completely wet. Anyway I did 25 laps yesterday and improved my feeling in the wet, so that was positive even if these weren’t the conditions we were looking for. This morning it was wet again and we eventually had to wait for half the day until the track dried.

“I was very happy to finally ride the bike in fully dry conditions and my good first impressions of the RR were confirmed. I think it went very well and I have learned a lot. We focused on me getting comfortable, were working with the electronics a lot and also started to work on the suspension, but obviously we only had three or four hours of riding in reasonable conditions. That is not enough to know everything about the bike.So we are still missing track time but I am very positive at the moment.”

Serafino Foti:
“Unfortunately on the first day we could not do much due to the track conditions, as it was wet. Today the weather was a little bit better and we were able to run half of the day in dry conditions. The whole team worked very hard. Marco focused on testing some new components, using all the available time. He did 68 laps but, as we only had half a day to check everything, it was not possible to complete our programme. Chaz focused on developing a feeling with the bike and on getting acquainted with his new crew. He did 46 laps. Our next test will take place from 28th to 30th November and we really hope the weather will be good. It is very important for us to do a lot of mileage.”

[Source: BMW]