Piaggio Group to race in MotoGP, Superbike and Superstock in 2015 with Aprilia

Mar 05 2015 20:22
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Roberto Colaninno: "2015 is a season which will have us super busy on the racing front"

 

Milan, 5 March 2015 – Aprilia's new challenge is called MotoGP, the top world motorcycle racing category. Aprilia's 2015 season in the world speed championships was presented today in Milan by the CEO and Managing Director of the Piaggio Group, Roberto Colaninno, along with Romano Albesiano (Aprilia Racing manager) and the riders in the three specialities the Aprilia V4 bikes will be participating in this year: Alvaro Bautista and Marco Melandri for MotoGP, Leon Haslam and Jordi Torres for Superbike, and Kevin Calia and Lorenzo Savadori for Superstock.

"2015 is a season which will have us super busy on the racing front" commented Roberto Colaninno, CEO and Managing Director of the Piaggio Group. "To add to what has by now become our traditional presence in Superbike, we will also be participating in the Superstock races and, above all, Aprilia will be making its début in MotoGP a year ahead of the previously announced schedule. In Superbike we are reigning world champions and we kicked off the season in the best way possible at the opening Phillip Island round, winning and moving into the lead in both the rider and manufacturer standings. MotoGP is a more difficult challenge. It will take time, patience and a lot of passion. We know that this season in MotoGP will not be easy, but Aprilia's technological advancements are growing toward increasingly more complex goals and we want to measure up in more and more difficult environments, directly on the racetrack, and already from this year."

"Races are the maximum expression of technological development for a company like ours. They are a laboratory on the track" added the head of the Piaggio Group. "But this is just one of the fronts we are working on. With our brands and our own various product lines the Piaggio Group is working the entire field researching new technologies to meet needs that our customers haven't even expressed yet and new ways of interacting between the rider, the vehicle and the surrounding environment. For these operations our collaboration with universities and international research institutions will be fundamental, as well as the relationship we are establishing with SAP."

In fact, on the RS-GP, the bike Aprilia will be taking to its début in MotoGP, the SAP logo appears, the European multinational company specialised in software solutions, with which the Piaggio Group has recently partnered.

MotoGP is the Championship that Aprilia decided to return to in the 2015 season, moving the début up a year with respect to the initial plans. This is a brave choice, in line with the character of one of the most victorious racing divisions in history. In fact, in its brief history in motorsports - from 1992 to 2014, Aprilia has managed to win an impressive 54 world title wreaths, 28 of which were earned from 2006 to the present, after joining the Piaggio Group. The Group, on the other hand, boasts an impressive collection of 104 world titles since the 54 wreaths Aprilia has won are joined by 21 Derbi titles, 15 Moto Guzzi world titles and 14 Gilera world titles. 

Aprilia skilfully demonstrated its competitiveness in the Superbike challenge, where it quickly became a genuine dominator, earning an impressive seven world titles in the last five years.

In Superbike, after winning the 2014 Manufacturer and Rider titles in the final round at Doha, Aprilia has already kicked off this year in the two races at Phillip Island which traditionally open up the two wheel motorsport seasons. It was an opener worthy of the reigning champion with the two new Aprilia riders immediately proving to be competitive: a first and second place finish for English rider Leon Haslam, who thrust Aprilia into first place in the Rider and Manufacturer standings; and a fourth place finish for Spanish rookie Jordi Torres.

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