World Superbike team, BMW Motorrad Motorsports has released their first official studio images of this season’s 2012 S1000RR team livery.

As you can tell they’ve haven’t changed and kept the usual and classical BMW blue, white and red colours they debuted with back in 2009.

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During yesterday’s Aprilia Factory Team presentation and press conference in Milan, five time World Champion Max Biaggi let it slip that 2012 will be an all important season for the Aprilia Superbike team as it will be the penultimate year for the RSV4 Factory, as development on the bike will be halted in 2013 and that it will be replaced at the end of 2013.

What Aprilia has in store for fans has yet to be leaked, but if they want to compete against the stunning 1199 Ducati Panigale, we could see another important step forward in Italian design and performance.

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Crescent Suzuki has pulled off the wraps on the livery of the 2012 GSX-R1000s that John Hopkins and Leon Camier will be using in this season’s 2012 World Superbike Championship.

The team also revealed that Foreign Exchange Solutions company Fixi will be their co-title sponsor and the Dorset based team will be racing under the name Crescent Fixi Suzuki.

Paul Denning - Team Principal:
“The team has done a stunning job to prepare the new GSX-Rs for this level of competition; the attention to detail is faultless and I think that this will be the most-advanced GSX-R ever to grace a racetrack! Yoshimura’s hard work and proactive attitude to engine development has also enabled us to be as well prepared for Phillip Island as we can be. John and Leon are ready, the team is very motivated; and we will put everything into competing at the best level we possibly can!

“I would like to thank Richard Wynn and his co-directors at Fixi for their continued and expanded support. I would also like to thank Ronald Kabella and the team at Motorex and all our partners for their commitment to Crescent Fixi Suzuki’s assault on the World Superbike Championship. Finally, thanks to everyone at new team partner Sign Language for completing the graphic-wrapped livery so expertly and quickly.”

Richard Wynn - CEO, Fixi Plc:

“Fixi provides bespoke, state of the art foreign exchange services to the institutional and professional marketplace and we are no strangers to Crescent, having supported them in the British Superbike Championship last year. Having our brand exposed globally is extremely good timing for us - we have offices in London, Chicago and more recently Singapore and, through our innovative technology, we are able to reach out to clients and partnerships in all the leading global financial centres.

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At the first round of the 2012 World Superbike Championship - which will take place in Phillip Island, Australia, over the last weekend of February - BMW Motorrad’s rider Leon Haslam will debut a new Arai helmet designed by Drudi Performance that will also carry an exclusive “25 years” logo. The ‘25 years’ to which that special label refers to are the time spent by the Englishman with Arai, the world’s leading helmet manufacturer. Not too bad considering that Haslam is only 28 years old.

“I really like the new design and it’s always nice to have something new for the start of a new Championship - said Haslam - This is the pre production design and I’ll now work with the Arai guys in Holland and Japan to finalize the replica.”

He also added: “I’m also really proud to have been with Arai for so long, 2012 will be my 25th year with them. They’ve been looking after my head for a long time now and their product is simply the best.”

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Our colleagues at Motoblog.it are at Aprilia’s 2012 Superbike team presentation at Piaggio’s Spazio Broletto in Milan to present this season’s rider line-up Max Biaggi and Eugene Laverty.

Since the team will no longer be running under the Alitalia title sponsorship banner, they’ve reverted back to the original Aprilia corporate colours livery they used in 2009 when they returned to the World Superbike championship.

Technical and Sporting Director will again be Gigi Dall’Igna, and the new Team Manager will be Dario Raimondi. The late Marco Simoncelli’s crewchief Aligi Deganello will be following Max Biaggi’s side of the garage (since Giovanni Sandi left with almost all of Biaggi’s crew), while Marcus Eschembacher while be following Eugene Laverty.

After the jump, more pics and two videos from the team presentation including the RSV4 technical specifications:

Continue reading: Aprilia Factory Superbike Team presentation at Milan

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Considering that half of Europe is under snow and sub-zero temperatures, chosing the ski resort town of Sestriere, Italy (where the 2006 Olympics where held) seemed the proper choice for the Effenbert Liberty to do their official team presentation.

The two day event took place on last Saturday and Sunday, and they presented their 2012 rider line-up, with Sylvian Guintoli, Jakub Smrz and Maxime Berger for World Superbikes and Federico Sandi and Brett McCormick for FIM Superstock 1000 Cup championship, with Sylvain Guintoli’s #50 Ducati as the star of the programme.

The team also hosted a gala dinner at the Hotel Belvedere restaurant, followed up by a night of fun and dancing at the Tabata disco, with the usual hot looking ladies draped all over the Ducati 1098R.

Continue reading: Effenbert Liberty Superbike and Superstock Team presentation at Sestriere

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The World Superbike championship kicks off at the end of the month and the BMW Motorrad factory team has decided to go for a pre-season Q&A with their new rider Marco Melandri and the Italian talks about his impressions on the BMW S 1000RR, the new single bike rule and his relationship with team mate Leon Haslam.

Melandri who joined BMW after Yamaha’s decision to withdraw its factory effort in the series, and also refused a ride with Aprilia.

Q: How long did it take you to feel comfortable within BMW Motorrad Motorsport?

“For sure, it takes some time to get to know each other, but from my side we have actually got off to a very good start. I find the atmosphere in the factory very positive, and everybody has tried to work even harder than before. And from my side it is the same, so I really liked it. We know it will be a big challenge, and we know we need to keep up with the other guys. But we will do that. I am very happy to be here.”

Q: What were your first impressions of the team?

“That it was very big! That was a bit unusual for me in the beginning. But now we are all working together, and trying to use the full potential of all the resources and people available to us.”

Continue reading: Q&A with BMW's Marco Melandri

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Newly signed Kawasaki Pedercini rider Leandro Mercado will not be taking part in the opening round of the World Superbike championship at Phillip Island, February 24th to 26th after fracturing his right radius bone while training with his supermotard.

The young Argentian rider who won last month’s 500 Milhas Interlagos endurance race has already undergone surgery to fix the fracture in order to speed up the healing process and will start rehabilitation next week, and is expected to return to action for the second round of the season that takes place at the end of March at Imola.

Pedercini has already lined up Bryan Staring as Mercado’s replacement rider. The Australian is in his second year of Superstock FIM 1000 Cup championship with the Italian team and last season Pedercini had him wildcard in WSBKs always at Phillip Island, where he picked up one point.

Leandro “Tati” Mercado: “I’m really disappointed because I won’t be able to participate at the Phillip Island races as it could be my Superbike debut. I was eager to compete in Australia hoping to obtain good results. I know the whole team worked extremely hard to prepare my bike for the first appointment of the season and now I’m forced to miss out on the race. Starting from next week, with the help of my doctors, I’ll start intensive rehabilitation to make sure that I’ll be in top condition for the second race in Imola”.

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This afternoon at their company headquarters at Civita Castellana, World Superbike team Althea Racing officially presented their 2012 line-up with reigning Superbike champion Carlos Checa and Superstock champion Davide Giugliano and the new livery that the team will be using in this season’s championship.

Althea Racing has picked up some important sponsors for 2012, not only has Unibat re-confirmed their backing, the team has also picked up a couple of mega sponsors like TIM (Telecom Italia’s mobile phone brand) and SNAI (Italy’s largest gaming and betting group) to front their racing effort.

The presentation was followed by the sponsors, Paolo Flammini, CEO of Infront Motor Sports, Paolo Ciabatti, General Manager of Infront Motor Sports, and Ernesto Marinelli, Ducati’s Superbike Project Director and various members of the press.

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Yesterday at the famed Monza circuit, BMW Motorrad Italia Goldbet SBK team did another presentation of their 2012 line-up with Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio and officially unveiled the colours of its new title sponsor GoldBet (we’ve already seen a livery mock-up last December when they did a first unveiling).

The BMW satellite team debuted in WSBK in 2011 with James Toseland and Ayrton Badovini, who often out performed the BMW factory team and Badovini finished 10th overall, while James Toseland had to retire due to a career ending wrist injury.

Taking Toseland’s place will be Michel Fabrizio, who spent a very dismal 2011 season with the now defunct Alstare Suzuki team, making it an all-Italian effort. In the Superstock 1000 series, the team’s line-up will be fielding Sylvain Barrier (who has been training under James Toseland’s guidance) and Lorenzo Baroni.

After the jump official press release and more pics.

Continue reading: BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK official team presentation at Monza

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