Aprilia quits MotoGP?

According to reports, Piaggio - the company on the verge of becoming Aprilia's new owner - has decided to terminate the factory's RS Cube MotoGP project, putting Shane Bryne and Jeremy McWilliams out of a 2005 ride.

"The racing schedule of Derbi and Gilera will not change and about Aprilia we haven't any doubt to maintain our involvement in 125 and 250 GP classes," cyclenews.com reports Piaggio CEO Rocco Sabelli as saying.

"Regarding MotoGP, we think that Aprilia's presence on the challenge was not economic, not competitive and absolutely without positive effect in the commercial activity," he added. "Contrary, we will study the possibility to re-enter very soon in the World Superbike."

"To stay in MotoGP could to cost a lot of money and damage our firm."

Such news would appear to come as a complete surprise to Byrne, who painted a much more positive picture after testing the latest version of the RS Cube at Jerez last week.

"There should be some news regarding next year real soon now, whilst I was out in Spain Piaggio got given the go ahead by some European trust thing to actually be allowed to buy Aprilia so that's another step closer to going racing again," Byrne wrote on his official website shakey.com.

"The day after we tested, Aprilia's MD headed off to Valencia for some sponsorship negotiations that should also be done and dusted pretty soon, I'm supposed to be away on holiday on Wednesday so it'd be awesome for me if I could head off knowing exactly who I'm gonna be riding for next year..."

An official announcement from Piaggio regarding Aprilia's MotoGP future is expected towards the end of this week. It is not yet clear if the fearsome three-cylinder machines could yet be handed to an independent team (such as Pramac) to develop and race next season, perhaps with some aid from the Italian firm.

But should Aprilia leave MotoGP completely, McWilliams may well return to Proton KR - for whom he tested last week - but Byrne's other options look even more limited.

The best finish recorded by the Aprilia RS Cube since its 2002 debut was a sixth place, achieved by Colin Edwards (lower pic) at the 2003 season-opening Japanese Grand Prix.

McWilliams and Byrne finished 19th and 20th in the 2004 riders' world championship with a best finish of tenth (Byrne) at the restarted Italian Grand Prix. Aprilia finished sixth in the manufacturers' world championship with 39-points... Honda won with 355.