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With the news just released by the Alstare Suzuki team that the man they call the ‘Roman Emperor’ is now without a ride, Fausto Gresini, owner of the Hannspree Honda team in MotoGP, has acknowledged that he is talking to four-time world champion Max Biaggi.
Gresini has already signed Alex de Angelis for 2008, but de Angelis will be a rookie and Gresini needs a strong lead rider. It is also possible that additional sponsorship might come with the signing of the 36-year-old veteran who finished the World Superbike season with three wins and 17 podium appearances out of 25 starts. He finished third overall behind James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Noriyuki Haga (Santander Yamaha).
Biaggi’s signing by Gresini would be a bombshell since at present it seems that the factory Repsol Honda team will continue with Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden on Michelin tires while Valentino Rossi moves to Bridgestone. Gresini were thought to be deciding between current rider Toni Elias and Shinya Nakano (with HRC backing), but if something has changed in the HRC attitude toward Biaggi, this move could shake up things in the MotoGP paddock because the Gresini team is on Bridgestone. Having a proven winner like Max on a Bridgestone-shod Honda RC212V would allow Honda to hedge their Michelin bet.
Biaggi was fired from the factory Repsol Honda team and virtually vetoed from riding even a satellite Honda for Sito Pons at the end of the 2005 season. After sitting out 2006, he returned to action in World Superbike with Alstare Suzuki.
The people who were running Honda’s racing efforts when Biaggi was fired -- allegedly for his outspoken criticism of Honda’s racing management -- are no longer involved. Both Suguru Kanazawa, then HRC president, and Satoru Horiiki, Managing Director of HRC until this year’s Japanese Grand Prix, have both been transferred out of racing. Whether HRC’s new president, Masumi Hamane, shares the bad feelings toward Biaggi that prompted his expulsion from all things Honda, will soon be seen.
The Pramac d’Antin Ducati team in MotoGP has also been talking to Biaggi, but FGSport, the World Superbike promoters, are looking for a new World Superbike home for Biaggi, perhaps with a satellite Ducati team. More on this later.
Meanwhile there is more news on the Alstare Suzuki World Superbike front:
Tamoil (Libyan Oil Giant) Likely to Replace Corona Extra as Alstare Suzuki Sponsor
Ten years is a very long time for a sponsor to stay with a motorcycle racing team and that is how long Corona Extra, the Mexican brand of the Modelo Breweries of Mexico D.F., had been with the Alstare Suzuki team of Francis Batta in World Superbike. Batta had expected Corona to withdraw at the end of 2005 and was pleasantly surprised when they signed on for two more years.
The Corona era ended for Alstare Suzuki in Magny-Cours two weeks ago with a final podium appearance by Max Biaggi in his last ride for the team. Because alcohol sponsorship is banned in France, the team substituted the word “Gracias” for “Corona” on the fairings of the GSX-R1000s ridden by Biaggi and Max Neukirchner as a way of thanking the Mexican company (Neukirchner was subbing for injured regular Yukio Kagayama).
The Libyan petroleum company Tamoil is thought to be the most probable replacement for Corona. Tamoil’s representative in Italy is Al-Saadi Gadaffi, second son of the Libyan head-of-state, and Tamoil is also the sponsor of the Juventus football (soccer) team (Al-Saadi Gadaffi was a professional soccer player for several years.)
The sponsor of the Alstare Suzuki team features very prominently in the World Superbike paddock because Batta also owns and operated the central paddock hospitality where press conferences are held and racing machines from the key participating teams are displayed (Corona Extra also acted as generic title sponsor for the series through a separate agreement with FGSport, the series rights holders.)
The wording of the press release announcing that Max Biaggi will not continue with the Alstare team seems to connect this to the departure of the team sponsor, but, if it is true that Batta has another sponsor waiting in the wings, it may be that the real reason for the departure of the charismatic 36-year-old Italian was his long and expensive list of demands to Suzuki. According to Biaggi and to persons close to him, the rider was more concerned about the level of factory support than the contract fee.
Alstare Suzuki will increase from two to three riders in 2008, retaining Kagayama and adding Fonsi Nieto of Spain and Max Neukirchner of Germany to the mix.
First tests for Nieto and Neukirchner are scheduled for the 8th and 9th of November in Valencia. Kagayama is still injured and unlikely to take part in these tests.
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GO MAX!
