GRAND PRIX 250 World Champion Marco Simoncelli will NOT race in the first couple of rounds of the 2009 WSB championship, it has been confirmed.
There were many rumours that the Italian would take part as a wild card entry in the big bike class for Aprilia, but this is now not going to happen said Gigi Dall'Igna, the technical boss of the Piaggio Group's sporting interests, the company that looks after Aprilia.
"It was Marco's intention to compete, but for many reasons the Group has decided to the contrary" said Dall'Igna: "There is already much pressure surrounding our debut and truly the last thing that we wished to have was even more attention on us. There were some logistical problems, not insurmountable of course, but important ones all the same. We would have had to organise a team only for those two races, even if we ignored the fact that we are still in the development stage, for which we would have risked taking away vital support from Biaggi and Nakano, who have to make an entire race season on the RSV-4.
"The development is continuing well. The motor problems that we had in the last day of testing at Kyalami have been resolved, but there is still much to work to do."
