The big news out of the World Superbike paddock this weekend is that MV Agusta and Yakhnich Motorsport have parted ways. Depending on whose side of the story you want to believe, either MV Agusta has decided to bring its racing in-house mid-season, or Alexander Yakhnich became tired of the slow development from MV Agusta’s racing platforms, especially the MV Agusta F4RR.
Regardless of that, MV Agusta and Yakhnich Motorsport have signed an agreement that sees MV Agusta taking over the Italian brand’s racing efforts in WSS and WSBK. The move is effective immediately, meaning Sunday’s races at Misano will show the first fruits of MV Agusta’s involvement.
MV Agusta will retained the services of Claudio Corti and Jules Cluzel for the 2015 season; and for WSS at Misano, Cluzel will be joined by wild card rider Massimo Roccoli. Russian rider Vladimir Leonov will not be on an MV Agusta, as he is signed to Yakhnich Motorsport.
“We have reached some very important milestones with the F3 in the World Supersport Championship and we are continuing to invest in the development of the F4 Superbike with preparing for the new 2015 rules” said MV Agusta CEO Giovanni Castiglioni “We plan to significantly increase our commitment and investment in racing in order to achieve our very ambitious goals next season.”
While the MV Agusta F3 has proven itself to be a contender in World Supesport (Cluzel currently sits second in the WSS standings), the MV Agusta F4RR has lived up to its reputation as a difficult track machine. It will be interesting to see how MV Agusta progresses in WSBK as a pure factory effort, and how the Italian brand will fix its ailing superbike.
For its troubles, Yakhnich Motorsport is widely tipped to spearhead Yamaha’s return to the WSBK Championship for the 2015 season. The move should be an easy one for the Russian outfit, as Yamaha is said to be debuting a new Yamaha YZF-R1 later this year — likely with a three-cylinder configuration.
Source: MV Agusta
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