The Forward Racing adventure under the seal MV Agusta, displayed by the fairings, is not intended to be a simple parade for nostalgic people. It is a project on which the protagonists are working hard and they demonstrated it during the last tests organized in Barcelona. Quite a few new features brightened up the laps of Stefano Manzi and Dominique Aegerter. Some of which brought back memories.
MV Agusta prepares for the future. Looking to the past… The legendary company from Varese, which dominated the World Championship in the 1950s and 1960s, returned this season to race with its own chassis in Moto2 and in recent days has tried an innovative technological solution. The scene of this experiment was the Barcelona circuit, which organized two days of private testing intended for the intermediate classes of the Grands Prix.
Team Forward's machine particularly attracted the attention of insiders due to its aerodynamic configuration. In a version with a shell that was obviously intended for development, so much so that the Italian bike featured an oval-shaped airbox intake, with a separation in the middle. A decidedly special design, designed by the Castiglioni Research Center and the Forward Racing team.
An idea and a design which recall the year 1994 when a certain Cagiva C594, which was driven John Kocinski in class 500, had already introduced a hull with very similar shapes. Unfortunately, the non-ideal weather conditions encountered in Montmeló complicated the evaluation tasks reserved for engineers. “ We tried a new frame, several swingarms and new aerodynamic components” declared the team leader, Milena Koerner . " Unfortunately, the weather was not favorable. In addition to the rain, there were also gusts of wind in different areas of the circuit. All this did not help to collect certain data ».
« For these reasons it is not easy to evaluate all the material tested and, when we return, we will go directly to the wind tunnel to try to analyze the data in even more detail and understand how to proceed. Given that only one aerodynamic update is allowed by the regulations during the season, we cannot afford to make any missteps. We therefore want to be as certain as possible of the results obtained and understand whether we should proceed directly in this direction or organize further trials ».
Therefore, it has not yet been decided whether this new design will make its racing debut at the next Mugello Grand Prix. Its objective is already clear, that of improving aerodynamic penetration in the straight line and therefore maximum speed, which constitutes the Achilles heel of the MV Agusta compared to direct opponents.
During the two Catalan days, Dominique Aegerter had the opportunity to complete 154 laps, for a total of 713 km, reporting feeling good with the new aerodynamic components he tried. His teammate's progress Stefano manzi are more difficult to assess. He suffered two falls which limited the time he had on the track. He completed just 77 laps during the two sessions, for a total of 356 km.
