Colin Edwards is aware there is plenty of work to be done ahead of the 2012 MotoGP season on the Forward Racing BMW-Suter machine, but he was pleasantly surprised by his first impressions of the bike.
The vastly experienced Texan has completed two days of testing at Jerez after missing the post-Valencia shakedown at the end of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
And Edwards is adamant the the BMW-Suter has plenty of potential, with the bike's electronics package the key to the team's progress next year.
“Overall, it is better than I thought it would be, the potential is there,” he told MotoGP.com.
“I think we are at about 65 per cent right now. The chassis is set up, but the main thing is the electronics and getting the whole package to come together. With the electronics, every time we make a little change and make it better, everything just gets a little smoother and easier.
“But I know what I need, I know what I am looking for, I know how to make the bike go faster, so the main thing now is not to lose focus and keep going down the right path.”
Edwards' best lap on Thursday was 1m42.6secs, over a second down on the top time posted by Randy De Puniet on the Aprilia CRT RSV-4 and significantly slower than his best lap of 1m40.188sec achieved this season in the Spanish GP on the Tech 3 Yamaha.
The laid-back American star's team now has two months' to develop the machine further ahead of the official MotoGP test at Sepang in the New Year.
SOURCE:
Work to do but Edwards sees potential | MotoGP News | Nov 2011 | Crash.Net
Work to do but Edwards sees potential
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