Forward Racing

Forward Racing
2015 name Athinà Forward Racing
Base Switzerland Agno, Switzerland
Principal Giovanni Cuzari
Rider(s) MotoGP – 6 Stefan Bradl
MotoGP – 76 Loris Baz
Moto2 – 3 Simone Corsi
Moto2 – 7 Lorenzo Baldassarri
Motorcycle Forward-Yamaha (MotoGP)
Kalex (Moto2)
Tyres MotoGP – Bridgestone
Moto2 – Dunlop
Riders' Championships –

Forward Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the MotoGP and Moto2 World Championships.

History

The team started competing in the MotoGP class as the Hayate Racing Team, a scaled down version of the Kawasaki factory team that withdrew from MotoGP for the 2009 championship due to the economic crisis.[1] The team took its name from the Japanese word Hayate meaning hurricane. The team ran one Kawasaki ZX-RR motorcycle that was ridden by Marco Melandri.

Kawasaki stopped developing new parts for the motorbike in March 2009, meaning Kawasaki's involvement was limited to servicing and maintaining the motorcycle for the rest of the 2009 season.[2] Despite this, Melandri achieved a remarkable result in coming second at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in May.[3]

In 2010, they participated as Forward Racing in the new Moto2 class, with Jules Cluzel and Claudio Corti as their riders on Suter bikes. Cluzel won the British Grand Prix and finished 7th in the championship. Corti had a pole position for the same race, but his best result was ninth at Misano. In 2011 the team competed with Cluzel and Alex Baldolini, later replaced by Raffaele de Rosa. The best result was a fourth place clinched by Cluzel at the British Grand Prix.

The team returned to MotoGP in 2012 as one of the Claiming Rule Teams and signed Colin Edwards,[4] fielding a Suter chassis with a BMW engine.[5]

For the 2012 Moto2 Championship Forward Racing signed Alex de Angelis and Yuki Takahashi.[6][7] The team started the season with Suter bikes then switched to FTR after six rounds; with the new chassis de Angelis won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

For 2013, Forward Racing expanded its MotoGP involvement to a two-rider team, signing Claudio Corti alongside Colin Edwards with new FTR-Kawasaki bikes. The Moto2 effort was expanded to four riders with Simone Corsi, Mattia Pasini, Alex de Angelis and Ricard Cardús aboard Speed Up bikes.

In 2014 the team again entered the MotoGP class with two bikes for Colin Edwards and Aleix Espargaró. Taking advantage of the new Open category, Forward Racing intended to use Yamaha-leased YZR-M1 engines with FTR frames, however the team started the season with a complete Yamaha YZR-M1 engine-frame-swingarm package[8] with other parts supplied by FTR. At the Mugello round Edwards debuted the new Forward frame built by Harris Performance.[9] Espargaró, who stayed with the Yamaha frame, achieved a pole position at Assen and finished on the podium at Aragon with second place, finishing seventh in the championship.

In Moto2 Forward Racing stepped back to a two-rider team, retaining Pasini and Corsi. The team started the season with 2013-specification Kalex frames modified in-house and rebadged as Forward KLX.[10] At the fifth round the team switched to official Kalex bikes.[11] Riding the new frame Corsi scored two podiums, but a crash at Silverstone ended his season. He was then replaced by Supersport World Championship rider Florian Marino.

For the 2015 MotoGP season Forward Racing renewed their partnership with Yamaha, planning to run two bikes with YZR-M1 engine-frame-swingarm packages and abandoning the in-house chassis project.[12]

Results

Summary

Year Class Team name Bike Riders Races Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points Pos.
2009 MotoGP Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-RR Italy Marco Melandri 17 0 1 0 0 108 10th
2010 Moto2 Forward Racing Suter MMX France Jules Cluzel 17 1 2 0 1 106 7th
Italy Claudio Corti 17 0 0 1 0 20 25th
Italy Ferruccio Lamborghini[lower-alpha 1] 1 (5) 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2011 Moto2 NGM Forward Racing Suter MMXI France Jules Cluzel 17 0 0 0 0 41 21st
Italy Alex Baldolini[lower-alpha 2] 10 (14) 0 0 0 0 18 27th
Italy Raffaele de Rosa[lower-alpha 2] 7 (13) 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2012 MotoGP NGM Mobile Forward Racing Suter MMX1 United States Colin Edwards 17 0 0 0 0 27 20th
Australia Chris Vermeulen[lower-alpha 3] 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Moto2 NGM Mobile Forward Racing Suter MMXII

FTR Moto M212

 San Marino Alex de Angelis 16 1 2 0 1 86 10th
Japan Yuki Takahashi 17 0 0 0 0 2 30th
Italy Mattia Pasini[lower-alpha 4] 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2013 MotoGP NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR-Kawasaki United States Colin Edwards 18 0 0 0 0 41 14th
Italy Claudio Corti 18 0 0 0 0 14 19th
Moto2 NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up SF13 Italy Simone Corsi 17 0 1 0 0 108 11th
Italy Mattia Pasini 17 0 0 0 0 58 15th
NGM Mobile Forward Racing San Marino Alex de Angelis 17 0 0 0 0 81 14th
Spain Ricard Cardús 17 0 0 0 0 9 23rd
2014 MotoGP NGM Forward Racing Forward-Yamaha Spain Aleix Espargaró 18 0 1 1 0 126 7th
United States Colin Edwards 10 0 0 0 0 11 22nd
San Marino Alex de Angelis[lower-alpha 5] 8 0 0 0 0 14 21st
Moto2 NGM Forward Racing Forward KLX
Kalex Moto2		 Italy Simone Corsi 12 0 2 0 0 100 7th
Italy Mattia Pasini 18 0 0 0 0 35 21st
France Florian Marino[lower-alpha 6] 6 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Notes
  1. ↑ Lamborghini raced for Forward Racing at the San Marino Grand Prix as a wildcard.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Baldolini rode for the team in the first ten races, then he was replaced by de Rosa. Both riders competed for other teams during the season.
  3. ↑ Vermeulen replaced Edwards at the French Grand Prix.
  4. ↑ Pasini replaced de Angelis at the Valencian Grand Prix.
  5. ↑ De Angelis replaced Edwards from the Czech Grand Prix onwards.
  6. ↑ Marino replaced Corsi from the San Marino Grand Prix onwards.

MotoGP results

(key)

Year Bike Tyres Riders 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Points Pos.
2009 Kawasaki ZX-RR B QAT JPN SPA FRA ITA CAT NED USA GER GBR CZE IND RSM POR AUS MAL VAL 108 7th
Italy Marco Melandri 14 6 5 2 11 14 11 10 7 7 Ret Ret 8 12 7 8 17
2012 Suter MMX1 B QAT SPA POR FRA CAT GBR NED GER ITA USA IND CZE RSM ARA JPN MAL AUS VAL 27 13th
United States Colin Edwards 12 16 DNS NC 16 Ret 12 Ret 13 13 13 11 18 13 Ret Ret 14
Australia Chris Vermeulen 17
2013 FTR-Kawasaki MGP13 B QAT AME SPA FRA ITA CAT NED GER USA IND CZE GBR RSM ARA MAL AUS JPN VAL 55 9th
United States Colin Edwards Ret Ret 15 16 14 9 17 13 12 13 11 14 12 16 15 12 12 15
Italy Claudio Corti 16 19 17 Ret Ret 12 18 15 Ret 14 Ret 17 16 15 13 17 20 13
2014 Forward-Yamaha B QAT AME ARG SPA FRA ITA CAT NED GER IND CZE GBR RSM ARA JPN AUS MAL VAL 151 7th
United States Colin Edwards 9 Ret 20 Ret 17 15 18 22 20 13
Spain Aleix Espargaró 4 9 15 7 9 9 6 4 6 Ret 8 9 Ret 2 11 Ret Ret 7
San Marino Alex de Angelis 16 15 14 12 17 9 Ret 18

References

  1. ↑ "Kawasaki statement in full". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 9 January 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "Marco Melandri: I will race the Hayate". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 12 March 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  3. ↑ "Lorenzo takes dramatic victory at wet-dry Le Mans". motogp.com (Dorna Sports). 17 May 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  4. ↑ "Colin Edwards confirms he will leave Tech 3 team at end of the season". BBC Sport (BBC). 2 September 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
  5. ↑ Birt, Matthew (20 October 2011). "Colin Edwards to ride Suter/BMW in 2012". Motor Cycle News (Bauer Media Group). Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "de Angelis to NGM Forward for Moto2". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 5 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "Moto2: Takahashi goes Forward for 2012". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 18 November 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  8. ↑ "Qatar MotoGP: Espargaro sticking with Yamaha frame". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 20 March 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  9. ↑ "Forward Racing to use new MotoGP chassis at Mugello". Motomatters.com. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "Moto2: Forward announces new 'KLX' chassis project". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 13 February 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Le Mans Moto2: Forward announces official Kalex deal". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 15 May 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  12. ↑ Birt, Matthew (15 January 2015). "Forward Racing abandons chassis project". Motor Cycle News (Bauer Consumer Media). Retrieved 22 January 2015.

External links