MV Agusta at work in Jerez. The manager Cuzari is optimistic: “Dreams can sometimes come true”

It is time for the Moto2 tests. On the Andalusian circuit in Jerez de la Frontera, in Spain, all of the teams in the second category of Grand Prix motorcycle racing (although there is also Moto3) are busy on the official practice days before the championship, which starts on 6-8 March in Losail, Qatar. Naturally, the teams present included the Italian-Swiss team of Forward Racing, which is bringing the two official MV Agusta motorcycles onto the track for the second consecutive year, again with Stefano Manzi and with the new entry Simone Corsi, on the seats of the F2s.

Apart from the times, the season is starting with great expectations surrounding MV Agusta, who intend to celebrate their 75th birthday in style (the highlight will be a party on 20-21 June, in the centre of Varese), following a year as protagonists on tracks around the world. The manager of Forward Racing, Giovanni Cuzari, stressed their desire to do well. Yesterday (Thursday, 20th), we interviewed him at the end of an event at Cafe Racer Varese, whose protagonist was Gigi Soldano, the “king of Grand Prix photographers”.

“The tests in Jerez are really helping to understand what works and what doesn’t,” Cuzari explained. “For example, we discovered that one of the eleven frames at our disposal doesn’t work as we’d like it to, but these days are useful for this too; we discarded one solution, we started from another one that we already knew and that’s enabled Simone Corsi to set very good times in the last few days.”

What works well includes technical solutions that have been developed over the last few months. “The bike changed a lot in the second half of the last championship; thanks to the efforts of the Castiglioni Research Centre (CRC), which is based in San Marino, MV Augusta provided us with a swingarm that allows us to have an impressive grip, which we can exploit to the full. Now, we’re working hard on the front wheel, also because of the new tyres that we’re using this year; our suspension technician, Luciano Zazza, has already understood how best to use them.”

Corsi and Manzi, with Milena Koerner, the team manager of Forward Racing

Cuzari emphasised, in particular, the great support provided by Schiranna over the winter months. “I really want to thank the company for their amazing work in research and development. Through CRC, MV Augusta put at our disposal a lot of material to try. So, returning to what was said at the beginning, we have the opportunity to test different roads and different solutions, to find the best. Corsi’s times are very comforting; on the old tyres, he set a low time of 1’41’’, a few tenths of a second behind the best. There’s a lot of potential.”

Unfortunately, Forward Racing had to tackle a difficulty involving Stefano Manzi, who fell disastrously on the first day of private tests. “The accident was serious, for the motorcycle and for the rider,” Cuzari explained. “Stefano even lost consciousness for a few minutes, so we’ve had to deal with that situation. But he’s not the sort to give up; two days after the fall, he got back on his bike and immediately found his feeling with it, with the track, with the sport, and the times achieved today (Thursday 20th February, ed.) were immediately interesting, as was the 11th place in the sixth session.”

Before their appearance at the racing weekend, on 6-8 March, Forward Racing and the other teams taking part in the Moto2, are meeting up in Qatar for a final series of official tests, a week before the start of the Championship (which is from Friday 28 February, to Sunday 1 March). That will be the last chance to make adjustments to the bikes that are going to battle it out, for 20 weeks, on racetracks all over the world. After a year of apprenticeship, MV Augusta wants to grow and become big. “We have the potential, the support of the company and good riders. Who knows, sometimes dreams can come true,” Cuzari concludes.