Max Biaggi Back to Aprilia: No Longer in the Shadow

The Italian was forced to sit out the '06 season after finding his services no longer in demand. It would be a humbling experience. A year later there was nowhere for him in MotoGP, so he took an offer from the Suzuki Alstare team, a move that delighted the World Superbike faithful. Biaggi was the first true MotoGP star to join the championship and his popularity, at least in Italy, remained strong. And the level of pressure was much lower. No longer would he be compared to Rossi, who had stolen his thunder in their home country.

Long before Rossi had come along as the fair-haired kid from the small town of Tavullia, Biaggi was the dark-haired veteran from Rome whose every move was scrutinized.

"Well, this is part of the game," Biaggi acknowledged. It was good versus bad, and Biaggi understood. "Maybe they were thinking then that I was suiting better the bad guys. So [Rossi] is like more blue angel, but at the end of the day I'm not sure that this fits myself. What I can say? I cannot go to each one and say, 'No, this is correct, no this is wrong.' I'm really at peace with myself. I have no problem with that." Following his year with Suzuki, he moved to a satellite Ducati team and his results suffered. The rumor that missing out on the factory Xerox Ducati ride was the harshest blow of his career wasn't true, he said.

"No, just it didn't happen," he said.

"When we were speaking about that, Aprilia came with this offer. In this case I really risk everything and go with this." So he returned to Aprilia after an intense courtship and agreed to a two-year deal, at Aprilia's insistence, he claims. "They push me so hard to make two years," he says. "So they really want me to be there and for sure to help out for developing the bike." Back in the Aprilia family, he was reunited with much the same crew that he rode for in the mid-90's, including crew chief Giovanni Sandi. "That was part of my deal, to have the people that I know in a good and a bad way," Biaggi said. "Even if it's bad, at least you have a team who surrounds you and knows how you move around and how to take you. And in a good thing is always to be successful with someone that you [were] successful [with] in the past."

When he first rode the Aprilia RSV4 "it was not ready, of course." It's also the only V4 on the grid. At the second event of 2009 at Qatar, he qualified third and finished third in both races, encouraging results for the very young team. "What we did already in race one and race two was not even thinking that it was possible to make, for when we start, only one month before," he said. "I mean was not possible. But at the end it was possible and really, really strong pushing from the factory and they make a really hard job. But now you can see the competition is very high and to go to make the step over from where we start is hard."

Another problem is reaction time. In his former stint, the factory reacted much more quickly. "Before it was much more easier to do things quickly. Now it takes time."

And time isn't on his side. Biaggi turns 38 this year.

The class where Biaggi had his greatest success is being eliminated in 2009. The 250cc class will give way to Moto2 machinery, control Honda 600cc engines in prototype chassis. Many are lamenting the passing of what is considered the best class in racing, the last of the thoroughbreds. Biaggi isn't among them.

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"At that time, when the four-stroke didn't exist in MotoGP, [250s] were the best tool you could make," Biaggi said. "But with the entries of four-stroke engines, Superbike, Supersport became a little more easy for people to adapt themselves. While two-stroke is another kind of way to go.

"In the way it happened I don't really know all the background, because better I don't say anything, because I don't really know 100%, so maybe will be not correct," he said.

Speechless and worried about being correct-this is not the real Max Biaggi.

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