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<B>Tech 3 confirms riders, bikes, tyres.</B> |
Yamaha Tech 3 has officially confirmed that it will field former double World Superbike champion Colin Edwards alongside reigning double WSBK champion James Toseland during the 2008 MotoGP World Championship.
The pair will be riding the latest 2008 YZR-M1s, while Tech 3 will also switch, as expected, to Michelin tyres after developing Dunlops for the past two seasons.
Edwards has now spent five years in MotoGP, the last three of which have been spent along Valentino Rossi in the factory Yamaha team.
The Texan has taken eight podiums, two pole positions and three fastest laps, but the nearest he has come to a race victory remains Assen 2006, when he fell on the exit of the final chicane - a moment Toseland watched in horror from the Ten Kate Honda pits, during WSBK qualifying at Misano, happening at the same time.
33-year-old Edwards claims to be happy with his switch to Yamaha's satellite team (in order to make way for 250cc world champion Jorge Lorenzo) and - with each 2008 Yamaha MotoGP rider having already won at least two world championships - believes the factory will be quickly on the attack.
"I'm honestly really excited about coming to Tech 3. I think the overall package that Yamaha has put together for next year - four good bikes and four world champions and four different crews giving Yamaha a whole lot of information means we will be on the pace from the start and it's pretty exciting," he declared. "I've known Herve [Poncharal, team principal] well and I know that Tech 3 is a very good outfit and I'm also really looking forward to sharing a garage with James. I'm positive that it's going to be a great team."
Toseland, like Lorenzo, will be making his MotoGP debut in 2008, having clinched the WSBK crown in 2004 and 2007.
"I am over the moon about coming to MotoGP," said James. "It seems to have been a long time coming to get this opportunity but it has come at the right time and is the opportunity of a lifetime. It is a massive transition in my life to make and I am really looking forward to it. I don't know who was happier as my mum was in tears when we got the news!
"I am really thankful to Yamaha and I appreciate the chance they have given me and I want to thank everyone for the opportunity they have given me.
"I have met Herve on a couple of occasions and he is a genuine nice guy and I truly feel the Tech 3 Team will be a good place to start my MotoGP career so it's nice to be welcomed into the team.
"It will also be good to be working with Colin again as we have had a 10 year separation [since being team-mates at Castrol Honda]. He has said some really nice things in the press as to how he will help me. We get on really well together so I think we should make a good team.
"I've been employed to do a serious job so I am not coming in with the mental attitude that there won't be any pressure on me; there will be and I want to do the best job possible and be near the front," he concluded.
The new look Yamaha Tech 3 team will make its debut during testing at Sepang on Thursday.
