CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM UNVEILS FINAL LIVERY WITH SPECTACULAR
SHOW IN ITALY
 With
exactly one month to go before the first race of the new MotoGP
season, the Camel Yamaha Team today celebrated the start of
its 2006 campaign with a Team Presentation in Milan, in front
of 300 guests and international media. World Champion Valentino
Rossi and his American team-mate Colin Edwards, who was celebrating
his 32nd birthday today, were joined on stage by VIP guests
from Yamaha and Japan Tobacco International, as well as Italian
TV presenter Marco Mazzocchi, who compered the presentation.
The bikes were uncovered by the Festi group of acrobats,
who descended from the roof to reveal the M1s of Rossi and
Edwards in their final 2006 livery. Mazzocchi then welcomed
Masao Furusawa, Executive Officer for Engineering Operations
at Yamaha Motor Company and Lin Jarvis, Managing Director
of Yamaha Motor Racing Srl, onto the stage.
“Even though the basic M1 concept for 2006 is the same”,
commented Furusawa, “this is a more sophisticated bike,
especially with the increasing RPM of the engine. It is very
important for the progression of the bike to keep Valentino
and Colin together, as they are not just riders for us, but
a key part of the development of the M1.”
“Last year we got everything right with this team,”
added Jarvis. “The rider combination, the bike and every
other element. Now our goal with our new title sponsor Camel
is to achieve all this once again and win the championship.”
Roberto Zanni, European Regional President for Japan Tobacco
International, spoke about the exciting new partnership between
Camel and Yamaha. “The feeling has been very good with
Yamaha right from the beginning. Everything is very professional
but also very friendly, it’s a good atmosphere. I expect
that the passion this year within this team will be very great
and with two riders as successful as Valentino and Colin,
we can expect great things.”
Davide Brivio, the Team Director for the Yamaha Factory Team
for the fifth year running, then took to the stage to talk
about his goals for the season. “I think that everybody
will really like the new livery, and especially the riders’
numbers on the white squares. We needed to come up with something
original for the livery without moving away from the Camel
yellow, which we all really like, and now I think this final
livery is going to look really spectacular on track. For the
season, we’re ready! We’ve done some important
and successful tests, and now we will just make the most of
the six remaining days of testing before the first race to
make some final improvements to the new M1.”
The audience was then treated to a spectacular video of the
team and riders, before Rossi and Edwards mounted the stage
together for their part in the day. “This new bike is
really beautiful!” exclaimed Rossi, who this season
aims to win a sixth consecutive World Championship title.
“It’s exciting to be starting another season with
Yamaha; these last two seasons together with them have probably
been the best of my career. It’s also nice to be with
Colin again, we’re very close in our team. The new M1
is already very good and we’ve been working very closely
to develop it with Yamaha. Yamaha has done a very good job.
This year I have many new young adversaries who will be challenging
me, and I think there is going to be some spectacular racing!”
His team-mate Edwards, seeking to improve on his fourth-place
in the championship last year, said “I really like the
new bike design, it looks really great. I had the retro-style
number five like this on the bike at Laguna Seca last year
and I’ve used it again for this year. The new bike in
general has been fantastic throughout the winter tests, I’m
really excited. Yamaha has done a great job and everything
about it feels better than last year. I honestly can’t
wait to get back on board this week in Barcelona, we have
a few things to work on still but we’re in good shape.
My promise for the year is to win at least a few races and
have a one-two for the Camel Yamaha Team at the end of the
year!”
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