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*** Warning! This post may have spoilers!!!***
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Peter Mueller, the Executive Vice President of Development and Model Lines for BMW Motorrad, unveiled the team's lone rider so far, Ruben Xaus, during the San Marino Round at Misano. He spoke about more things than just the new rider line-up however, giving an insight into their imminent and future plans in Superbike racing and road racing in general.
Many expected BMW to unveil two riders at Misano, but there was only one, Ruben Xaus.....
"We are speaking with many other riders not just Troy Corser because at the end we do not know who will sign," said Mueller. "But I think it will be an experienced rider because we are new in this game and other teams have great experience, so having a proven Superbike rider would be useful for us. We are talking to some other riders, but in September we want to have everything in place."
Asked about the reasons to finally go World Superbike and not MotoGP, Mueller stated, "Many people thought it was a case of when we would participate in MotoGP, but we are a business unit on our own in BMW Motorrad, we have to finance our own cash flow and MotoGP is more expensive than Superbike. The board of BMW said we could do everything as long as we could finance it ourselves. We have been involved in one-make series and now we are in off-road and other competition. So for us it was important to get into competition again, and then the next step was Superbike. And not just World Superbike, we want to go to new markets, and the US market is a very big market. If we want to grow we have to go into other segments. If we are in the Superbike sector it also means that we have to race a Superbike in the Superbike class, to show our bike is competitive. I think if we had decided to enter MotoGP in the past, but then we built a road going Superbike, we would also have to enter in the Superbike class to show it was competitive here. If you are new you have to show that."
Mueller declared that it was important to race to show the speed and quality of what will maybe be the first truly sporting BMW of the modern era.
"We had to come back to racing against others. Our Boxer Cup was nice, and it was good to be in the MotoGP environment, but really we have to race against others. Our Motorsports department has to go racing again. We have some teams who are already interested in doing Superstock next year, but we have to make sure we don't do too much next year. But Superstock and then helping private teams in the future is definitely possible. The more teams we have in Superbike and Superstock the more it helps us."
Mueller however ruled out any wildcard rides in SBK this year, or German Superbike races as a precursor to competition in 2009. "We will not be riding in the German Superbike series this year, we will start in the first race next year. We are testing at racetracks in this series to see where we are.. When the World Championship is over and Ruben is available we will also go to the tyre tests to find out the level we are at. Our project is running on schedule but as you know in Motorsport, we still have eight or nine months ahead of us, so there is a lot to do."
The BMW Superbike features a different valve train system from its competitors, the reasons being that it was to try and find their own advantage over the rest, as well as to make their in-line four a little different from the Japanese.
"We have been asked about the valve operation of our machine and it is a different valve train but what it is we cannot say. But it is not pneumatic and it is not desmo. I can summarize it that when we started our project we analyzed all our competitors, Ducati, the Japanese, and we first had to understand why they used their solutions and when we were sure we could go another way, then we could maybe find some advantage. We have no connection with our Formula 1 team, but we have taken over some engineers mostly for calculation and simulation, but the application of the engine from Superbike to Formula 1 is limited. In total we have 360 engineers in my department, in Motorsport we have in total ten and for this project we will have around 30 to 40 people. It is not easy to say exact numbers because we have some people who do more than one thing."
...
More...
.
*** Warning! This post may have spoilers!!!***
.
.
.
.
.
Peter Mueller, the Executive Vice President of Development and Model Lines for BMW Motorrad, unveiled the team's lone rider so far, Ruben Xaus, during the San Marino Round at Misano. He spoke about more things than just the new rider line-up however, giving an insight into their imminent and future plans in Superbike racing and road racing in general.
Many expected BMW to unveil two riders at Misano, but there was only one, Ruben Xaus.....
"We are speaking with many other riders not just Troy Corser because at the end we do not know who will sign," said Mueller. "But I think it will be an experienced rider because we are new in this game and other teams have great experience, so having a proven Superbike rider would be useful for us. We are talking to some other riders, but in September we want to have everything in place."
Asked about the reasons to finally go World Superbike and not MotoGP, Mueller stated, "Many people thought it was a case of when we would participate in MotoGP, but we are a business unit on our own in BMW Motorrad, we have to finance our own cash flow and MotoGP is more expensive than Superbike. The board of BMW said we could do everything as long as we could finance it ourselves. We have been involved in one-make series and now we are in off-road and other competition. So for us it was important to get into competition again, and then the next step was Superbike. And not just World Superbike, we want to go to new markets, and the US market is a very big market. If we want to grow we have to go into other segments. If we are in the Superbike sector it also means that we have to race a Superbike in the Superbike class, to show our bike is competitive. I think if we had decided to enter MotoGP in the past, but then we built a road going Superbike, we would also have to enter in the Superbike class to show it was competitive here. If you are new you have to show that."
Mueller declared that it was important to race to show the speed and quality of what will maybe be the first truly sporting BMW of the modern era.
"We had to come back to racing against others. Our Boxer Cup was nice, and it was good to be in the MotoGP environment, but really we have to race against others. Our Motorsports department has to go racing again. We have some teams who are already interested in doing Superstock next year, but we have to make sure we don't do too much next year. But Superstock and then helping private teams in the future is definitely possible. The more teams we have in Superbike and Superstock the more it helps us."
Mueller however ruled out any wildcard rides in SBK this year, or German Superbike races as a precursor to competition in 2009. "We will not be riding in the German Superbike series this year, we will start in the first race next year. We are testing at racetracks in this series to see where we are.. When the World Championship is over and Ruben is available we will also go to the tyre tests to find out the level we are at. Our project is running on schedule but as you know in Motorsport, we still have eight or nine months ahead of us, so there is a lot to do."
The BMW Superbike features a different valve train system from its competitors, the reasons being that it was to try and find their own advantage over the rest, as well as to make their in-line four a little different from the Japanese.
"We have been asked about the valve operation of our machine and it is a different valve train but what it is we cannot say. But it is not pneumatic and it is not desmo. I can summarize it that when we started our project we analyzed all our competitors, Ducati, the Japanese, and we first had to understand why they used their solutions and when we were sure we could go another way, then we could maybe find some advantage. We have no connection with our Formula 1 team, but we have taken over some engineers mostly for calculation and simulation, but the application of the engine from Superbike to Formula 1 is limited. In total we have 360 engineers in my department, in Motorsport we have in total ten and for this project we will have around 30 to 40 people. It is not easy to say exact numbers because we have some people who do more than one thing."
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