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Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team: high expectations for Biaggi and Camier

Tuesday, 9 February 2010 12:52 GMT
In 2009, there were many expectations for Max Biaggi's return to Aprilia, the marque with which he had won three consecutive world championships in the 250 cc class from 1994 to ‘96. Now the team is looking forward to seeing the results he manages to bring home, in light of a debut season that demonstrated both the potential of the bike and the ability of the Roman rider to steer its development and take it to the top of the leader board, right up to the win at Brno.


Max Biaggi: "The presentation of a new season, of a bike with new colours, is always very emotional for a rider - it's like witnessing the birth of a living creature. It will be an honour to carry these prestigious colours onto the circuits of the whole world - a tricolour that will make both the bike and team unique. We also have a new team member: Leon comes from the tough British championship, and he certainly has all the right cards to become the strong wingman that both I and the team need. Aprilia did a fantastic job in 2009, we made giant strides from a technical standpoint, which were made possible by the whole team and by the work that let the debuting RSV4 make progress race after race. The win at Brno was just the crowning moment of a continuous process of growth. Of course, we were the great surprise of the 2009 season, and I am really happy with the results; nobody could ever have predicted that we would be so competitive at our debut, nobody would ever have expected a fourth place season finish. And yet I still feel as if the greatest satisfactions are still to come, we haven't reached the top yet - only a win will really crown it all for me. We are now facing the forthcoming season armed with more knowledge, more experience on the circuits and with the awareness of our potential".


The four times World Champion will be joined on the grid by 23 year old Englishman Leon Camier, in what is his first full season in SBK. Leon comes fresh from winning the title of British Superbike Champion, after dominating the 2009 season of his national championship for production derived bikes with an incredible 18 wins out of a total 26 races.


Leon Camier: "Being a part of this team, a part of the RSV4 project, is an incredible opportunity for me. This championship will be very tough, with extremely high levels of competitiveness. I'll be racing against some outstanding, highly experienced riders. This is why it is so important to be in a team like Aprilia Alitalia, one of the very few that offer a rider extraordinary opportunities in terms of developing the bike. My first impressions of the RSV4 were phenomenal: it has enormous potential and is a very quick bike. Now, I must first get as much experience as possible to fully exploit the potential that Aprilia puts in the hands of the rider. It is a great challenge for me to learn how to develop a bike and make it better. Everyone wants to win and everyone sets off from the grid to win, but my first goal will be to understand the bike and constantly improve my performance. I think that we have already found the right direction for the development of the bike, our goal now is to continue in this direction and to improve together with the bike".