We haven’t heard much from Max Biaggi since he retired back in 2012, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy. He’s still working on Aprilia’s MotoGP project, putting down laps this week at Mugello.
Biaggi finished his career with Aprilia, retiring from World Superbike competition in 2012 after winning the title that year. However, he’s no stranger to MotoGP – he raced 250 GP bikes from 1991 to 1997, then raced the 500 cc two-stroke machines from 1998 to 2005. Most of the titles he won during that career (he went to WSBK in 2007) were on Aprilia machines.
This week, Biaggi went to Italy to test the ART prototype at Mugello, managing 63 laps and a best time of 1’51.200. The test wasn’t just about set-up tweaks; they were also working on electronics on the bike, although which systems they were examining wasn’t specified.
ART says they are hoping to race a prototype full-time in MotoGP in 2016, after testing a machine in the Open or CRT class, or whatever MotoGP decides to call it next year.
Interesting. To put the lap time into perspective, it was the same time that Hayden posted at Mugello on the Ducati Panigale WSBK entry during his ‘should I stay or should I go’ test last September. Given that Max isn’t familiar with the MotoGP brakes and tires, it bodes extremely well for the competitiveness of the bike.