From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Fast-track development for Foggy PETRONAS Racing at Monza

Carl Fogarty and his Foggy PETRONAS Racing team continue the fast-track development of the FP1 when the World Superbike championship returns to Europe for round four at the historic circuit of Monza, in Italy.

Having demonstrated the potential of the bike during the first three rounds, riders Troy Corser and James Haydon face a new set of challenges at a circuit where straight-line speed is of the essence and where the cutting-edge aerodynamic technology used in the early development stages of the FP1 will play a key part.

Opportunities to test the bike under extreme slip-streaming, when a bike’s temperature can rise by more than 10 degrees Celsius, have so far been limited and improvements to the bike’s water pump have been made in an attempt to counter the increased heat output.

Carl, who will officially open the team’s brand new hospitality unit on Friday, said: “Part of our on-going development of the FP1 will be to see how it performs in higher ambient temperatures here, especially when slipstreaming. The aerodynamic shape of the bike will help for sure but I always found that bikes which did not normally handle well would work fine at Monza, so I don’t know whether our chassis will give us a great advantage here.

“I don’t really know what to expect this weekend. We are not ready to challenge for third place – the Ducati riders have the top two places sewn up. So I think a realistic goal for us at this stage would be to have both riders finishing in the top ten in both races. Reliability was a bit of a problem in Japan so hopefully we have managed to make progress on that front.”

Troy said: “Monza is all about acceleration and top speed. It’s actually quite a boring circuit because you spend so much time on the straights. Handling is a key factor through the fastest chicane, so the FP1 should go well through that section. Braking is also important and it will be interesting to see how stable the bike is under extreme braking, as it has not really been tested yet under those conditions.”

James said: “I really enjoyed racing here in 1997 so I am looking forward to this weekend and I don’t think the changes to the circuit will take too much learning. Hopefully the new set-up that I tried in the second race at Sugo will continue to work better for me. I am confident we are moving in the right direction, although we still need to develop this further for the FP1 to really suit me.”

Circuit information: Monza, Italy

Best lap: Troy Bayliss, 1:47.434 (2002).

Superpole record: Neil Hodgson, 1:47.913 (2002).

Race record: Troy Bayliss, 1:47.434 (2002)

Pole position: Left. Circuit length: 5.793km.

Corners: 5 left, 8 right. Corner radius: 610m maximum, 12.5m minimum.

Maximum slope: 2.4 per cent upwards, 1.7 per cent down

Race times: 1100 and 1430 hours, GMT. Selected

TV: British Eurosport (Superpole delayed, Saturday 21.30-22.30, both races live 10.00-15-
30). BBC (Race 1 delayed at 13.35, Race 2 live at 14.25)